ATHENS: A brazen jailbreak in a helicopter by a convicted killer was foiled when the prisoner was shot and the helicopter forced to land in the car park.

Armed men on board fired at guards and lowered a rope to help Panagiotis Vlastos, a murderer and racketeer, make his fourth attempt to escape from a Greek prison.

Authorities said the chartered helicopter - carrying two armed passengers, a pilot and a technician - first tried to rip off the netting fence surrounding Trikala prison with a hook dangling from a rope.

When that didn't work, a rope was lowered to whisk Vlastos away.

The passengers fired on prison guards with AK-47 assault rifles. One guard was slightly injured by shards of flying glass.


They also wounded the helicopter's flight technician.


Vlastos, 43, serving a life sentence, had tried three times before to escape from jail. Prison officials told Greek TV they recovered more than 500 bullets fired from the helicopter.

The Ministry of Justice said the helicopter passengers also carried ''improvised explosive devices'', but did not use them.

Authorities said Vlastos was wounded in the legs and

was being treated in the prison hospital.




Panagopoulos was kidnapped in January, 2009, and released after eight days when a ransom of €30 million ($38.7 million) was paid.

While awaiting trial for the kidnapping, Vlastos tried to escape from Korydallos prison in December 2011 with three others, but surrendered to authorities after a five-hour stand-off.

Vlastos had also tried to escape in 1994 and 1998.

Associated Press