This Sunday Greece saw one of the craziest jail break attempts we've ever heard of, with a gang trying to use a helicopter to free a convicted murderer from a prison courtyard.
Some details of the attempt, from Sky News:
- The criminals had chartered a helicopter carrying two armed passengers, a pilot and a technician.
- They were hoping to free convicted killer Panagiotis Vlastos.
- This was apparently the fourth attempt to free Vlastos. Three other unnamed criminals were also involved.
- At first the crew tried to rip off the chicken-wire fence surrounding the prison with a hook on a rope.
- The gunmen used AK47 assault rifles to shoot at the guards. It's believed they fired at least 500 bullets.
- Improvised explosive devices were also found on board, though not used.
- Guards shot Vlastos, causing him to fall 10 feet to the ground.
- The helicopter went down too, and everyone on board was arrested.
Pretty wild. Apparently the attempt would probably have been successful, if it were not for a tip-off given to police authorities that Vlastos would try to escape.
Luckily for us, locals captured some of the scenes.
This video shows the attack from a distance. You can clearly see the helicopter and hear the gunfire, and see when the helicopter is brought down:
This video shows the helicopter after it has been brought down, apparently sitting in the prison's car park.
A final video has been published by Greek police. It shows the damage to the helicopter, as well as the weaponry the police found on board:
Incredibly this isn't the first time that helicopters have been used in a Greek prison break — similar attempts in 2006 and 2009 were successful.
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