RéAU, FRANCE: A notorious career thief who was once France’s most-wantedman pulled off a daring jailbreak on Sunday, fleeing a prison near Paris byhelicopter in a commando-style operation.

Redoine Faid, 46, who previously said his life of crime was inspired byfilms such as “Scarface”, broke out of the prison with the help of threearmed accomplices, according to sources close to the case.

It is the second time Faid has pulled off a spectacular jailbreak — in2013, he blasted his way out of a prison in northern France using dynamite.

Sunday’s escape from the penitentiary in Reau in the French capital’ssoutheastern suburbs took just minutes, the prison authority said, addingthat no one had been injured.

“An armed commando group landed in the courtyard of the Sud-Francilienprison in Reau while he was in the visitors’ room,” the authority said.

The assailants then hacked through a lock that led through to a hallwaywhere Faid was waiting with one of his brothers.

The helicopter was later found in a northeastern suburb of Paris about 60kilometres (37 miles) from the prison, one source said, adding that apolice search has been launched across the entire Paris region.

A police source said the helicopter pilot was a flight instructor waitingfor a student when he was seized by Faid’s accomplices, before being laterfreed in a state of shock.

The escape came after an appeals court in April sentenced Faid to 25 yearsfor masterminding a 2010 botched armed robbery, in which a policewoman waskilled.

Faid, dubbed “The Author” by police, has been behind bars since mid-2011for breaking the terms of his parole over past convictions for bankrobberies and brazen heists of cash-in-transit vehicles.

In his 2013 jailbreak, he briefly took four guards hostage with a pistolbefore escaping in a waiting getaway car. All the hostages were releasedunharmed.

Faid was eventually recaptured six weeks later at a hotel in an industrialarea on the outskirts of Paris.

A woman working at the hotel told AFP at the time that Faid’s accomplicehad paid for the room in cash and that the two men had been there forseveral days.

Prior to this, Faid had been released from a previous stint of a decadebehind bars after convincing parole officials that he regretted hiscriminal past and was determined to start afresh.

Faid, who grew up in tough immigrant suburbs outside Paris, has madeseveral television appearances and co-authored two books about hisdelinquent youth and rise as a criminal in the Paris suburbs.

One of his prison supervisors said that Faid had never had any conflictwith staff, “but we must always be wary”.

“In the corner of his mind, he never lost the idea of escaping. Behind allhis manners — he is very polite — he always hid his game,” the supervisorsaid. – APP/AFP