A TWISTED inventor who murdered and butchered a journalist after luring her aboard his homemade submarine escaped prison after claiming he had a bomb.
Peter Madsen was involved in a tense stand off with snipers after he forced his way out of prison by taking a female psychologist hostage with what he claimed was a pistol before tell guards he had a bomb.
The snuff film obsessed killer was jailed for life for the gruesome killing and dismemberment of Kim Wall, a respected freelance reporter from Sweden.
The 49-year-old Danish engineer Madsen had been held in Herstedvester Prison on the outskirts of Copenhagen since 2018.
His dramatic escape attempt lasted around three hours after he escaped by convincing guards he had a real pistol and threatened his prison psychologist.
Danish publication Ekstra Bladet reports Madsen has previously been kept in isolation because prison guards suspected he would try to escape.
Prison official Bo Yde Sorensen said Madsen appeared to be armed and there seemed to be an “obvious risk for life” so they allowed him to leave.
Sorensen added: “It was very violent and the staff therefore choose to back off. We guess it was a dummy.”
He is believed to have hijacked a white van outside the prison, but the killer was then apprehended by cops.
Witnesses said Madsen was pulled him screaming from the vehicle just 500 metres away from the prison.
Police handcuffed him, but then Madsen claimed he was wearing a bomb – prompting cops to back off and leave him sitting on the roadside.
It’s horrible and strange that he has been able to escape from a prison where there are so many psychopaths
Witness
Officers kept their guns trained on him and a bomb disposal team had to move in with a robot to check if it was genuine.
He is reported to have escaped after threatening guards this morning by claiming he was carrying a bomb.
Cops reportedly ordered a bus driver to move his vehicle to block the view of scene.
As of 1pm local time, Madsen had been arrested and taken away after being checked for explosives by the bomb squad.
Detectives confirmed at a press conference that the explosive belt was a fake, no one was injured and Madsen is not believed to have had any accomplices.
It is believed that Madsen is now likely to be moved prisons after his escape attempt as the Danish justice ministry described the incident as “deeply serious”.
Justice minister Nick Hækkerup said: “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 called for an explanation for the Danish Prison and Probation Service for an explanation and said security must be tightened up.
Forensic psychiatrist Henrik Day Poulsen told Danish website BT: “He is a gifted man, but also a man who is incredibly dangerous.
“We are dealing with a man who has committed one of the most bestial murders in Danish history.
‘HE CAN BUILD A BOMB’
“Precisely because he can use his talent for something dangerous, it is very worrying that people do not take better care of him.”
Documentary journalist Kristian Linnemann who recently had many hours of telephone conversations with Madsen said he believes the killer can build a bomb.
He said: “He knows what to use to build a bomb. Peter Madsen knows everything about chemistry and technology.
“If he has the right ingredients, he will easily be able to build a bomb, but I doubt he has.”
It was in Linnemann’s recent film The Secret Recordings with Peter Madsen that the engineer finally confessed to killing Ms Wall.
One witness who lives just 20 metres from where Madsen was apprehended described the scene.
He said: “I came just outside my window see how two people are lying and aiming at him.
“They were really on their toes and shouting and shouting at everyone who comes close.”
Another added: “It’s horrible and strange that he has been able to escape from a prison where there are so many psychopaths.”
And another witness, named only as Frank, said: ” I came walking, and then a white van comes driving towards us, and then it is surrounded.
“I could not see it was Peter Madsen because it went so fast.”
Peter Madsen’s lawyer, Betina Hald Engmark, has not commented on the jailbreak.
Madsen was the skipper of the UC3 Nautilus, the private submarine he designed and built in 2008.
Prosecutors said Madsen invited Ms Wall on to his miniature vessel so that he could fulfil the most vile and violent of sexual fantasies.
He was found to have snuff films of women being decapitated alive on his computer’s hard drive.
They allege he brought a saw, knife and sharpened screwdrivers to the vessel as Ms Wall arrived to conduct an interview.
Prosecutors said the vile Madsen strangled or beheaded his victim after torturing her – stabbing her 15 times.
An indictment said he knifed her several times before cutting off her head and limbs and dumping them in the sea.
Madsen admitted dismembering his victim in the bathroom of the vessel after she died on board.
However, he refused to go into detail because it was “so horrible” and originally insisted it was an “accident”.
He claims he panicked and just wanted to remove all traces of her after her death.
Madsen also claims that multiple stab wounds he made with a 50cm screwdriver were not motivated by erotic or perverse fantasies.
The calculating killer also then sank the 56ft long U-boat in a bid to cover his tracks.
But it was raised from the depths by police investigators.
He denied the murder and sexual assault charges against him – but his protests were dismissed and he was sent to jail for life.
The 49-year-old was found guilty of premeditated murder, aggravated sexual assault and desecrating a corpse.
Madsen changed his story multiple times, originally claiming he had set her down on dry land before she vanished.
He then tried to claim she had died by getting hit on the head by the submarine’s hatch, and then that she died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Just last month, Madsen finally confessed to the crime in TV documentary The Secret Recordings with Peter Madsen.
Journalist Kristian Linnemann asked the twisted engineer if he killed Ms Wall, and he said “yes”.
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Madsen said: “It’s my fault she died. And it’s my fault because I committed the crime.
“It’s all my fault … There is only one who is guilty, and that is me.”
Judge Anette Burkø described the crime as “a cynical and pre-planned sexual assault of a particularly brutal nature”.
Madsen had attempted to argue for a lighter punishment, but his appeal was dismissed and he kept his life sentence.