Danish sub killer arrested after failed prison escape

The Danish man sentenced to life in jail for the murder of journalist Kim Wall aboard his homemade submarine was arrested on Tuesday after a failed prison escape bid led to a standoff with police.

"Peter Madsen tried to escape," a Copenhagen police official told AFP.

Police confirmed on Twitter that Madsen had been "arrested and removed from the scene" after being surrounded by police officers, with unconfirmed reports he had threatened them with an explosive device.

Danish tabloid BT reported Madsen had taken a hostage and threatened prison staff with a pistol-like object to force his way out of the facility.

It quoted witnesses who said he managed to drive away in a white van before police stopped him.

Photos from the scene showed Madsen sitting on the grass by a leafy wall next to a road a few hundreds meters (yards) from the prison, with two police officers lying prone on the ground pointing their weapons at him.

Madsen, a 49-year-old submarine enthusiast, was convicted in April 2018 of murdering the 30-year-old journalist Kim Wall as she interviewed him on board his submarine in August 2017.

In a documentary that aired in September, he confessed for the first time to the killing, after having insisted during the trial that her death was an accident.

"There is only one who is guilty, and that is me," Madsen said in the documentary.

In a case that made headlines around the world, Madsen had however admitted to the court that he chopped up her corpse and threw her body parts into the sea.

© 2020 AFP