Danish submarine killer caught after prison escape

[October 20, 2020]    COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Peter Madsen, who was convicted of killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall in a self-built submarine in 2017, was caught by Danish authorities on Tuesday after he briefly escaped from prison, police told Reuters.

Peter Madsen is seen surrounded by police in Albertslund, Denmark October 20, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Nils Meilvang via REUTERS

Danish police earlier said on Twitter they had arrested a man just outside the capital Copenhagen, after he had fled prison.

Footage released by tabloid Ekstra Bladet showed a man resembling Peter Madsen sitting up against a fence surrounded by police forces at a distance.

Madsen was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 for murdering, sexually mutilating and dismembering Wall aboard the submarine in Copenhagen harbour.

Police later said the operation, taking place less than a kilometre from the prison where Madsen is serving his sentence, was over and that the man under arrest had been taken away.

(Reporting by Tim Barsoe and Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alison Williams)

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