Peter Madsen: Danish inventor who killed journalist on submarine recaptured after prison escape with hostage
Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen, who was sentenced to life in prison for the grisly murder of a journalist on his home-made submarine, was recaptured after attempting to escape prison on Tuesday. The 49-year-old inventor managed to forced his way out of jail by taking a female psychologist hostage with what he said was a pistol and threatening guards claiming he had a bomb on his person, Danish media reported.
Madsen was later spotted in the open, sitting by a roadside while wearing a belt he claimed was laced with bombs - just a few hundred yards away from the prison in the Copenhagen suburbs, according to the Daily Mail. Police faced off with the killer as a bomb squad arrived on the cordoned-off street. In 2017, Madsen had raped and dismembered Swedish journalist Kim Wall after convincing her to board his submarine.
Police announced the standoff with Madsen was over around three hours after his escape, and that he had been arrested and taken in custody. The killer had somehow convinced prison guards that his gun was real and that the psychologist's life was in danger, Extra Bladet reported. According to prison official Bo Yde Sorensen, Madsen was "armed with a pistol-like object" and that guards were right to lock him out of the jail due to an "obvious risk to life." "It was very violent and the staff, therefore, chose to back off. We guess it was a dummy," he told BT.
Police said at a press conference that Madsen had jumped into a van and was on the run for five minutes before officers were able to catch up with him. The driver of that van struggled to answer questions as he speaks little Danish, police said, but added that he's not suspected to be plotting with Madsen. While it is unclear what happened to the hostage, Madsen was surrounded by snipers as he lay on the roadside grass telling officers he was wearing an explosive device. According to witnesses, Madsen had almost escaped in the white van before authorities stopped the vehicle, wrestled him out, and threw him to the ground.
The tense scene featured police dogs, trained negotiators, as well as a bomb disposal squad equipped with a robot - all of whom assessed Madsen's threat before successfully taking him down. At the press conference, authorities revealed that Madsen had a realistic-looking bomb belt -- but it was found to be a dummy. Meanwhile, the exact nature of his 'pistol' is still unclear, and police said they do not know if he made it himself. Denmark's justice minister Nick Hækkerup called the escape "deeply serious" and demanded an investigation into the incident. "It goes without saying that convicted prisoners who have committed the worst possible crimes should not be able to escape from the custody of the authorities," he said. "One thing is for sure: we will launch a number of further measures against prisoner escapes in the near future."
Madsen has previously been kept in isolation at the Herstedvester prison due to concerns that he may try to escape from one of Denmark's famously relaxed jails. "It's horrible and strange that he has been able to escape from a prison where there are so many psychopaths," one witness reportedly told Politiken. In 2018, Madsen was sentenced to life in prison for killing, sexually assaulting, and dismembering Wall after she boarded his submarine. Danish judge Anette Burkoe described the ordeal as a "cynical and planned sexual assault and brutal murder of a random woman, who in connection with her journalistic work had accepted an offer to go sailing in the defendant's submarine."