Three escapes in two days from secure youth unit

A 19 year old has escaped from a secure youth unit in Sundbo, Fagersta. It is the second time in two days that he has done a runner, while a murderer who escaped from the same institution on Friday was caught on Saturday.

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The escapes resurrect the ghost of last summer's embarrassing prison leakages in Sweden, when nine dangerous prisoners found themselves on the run after three separate break outs. All were caught after massive search operations.

In the latest incident, the 19 year old apparently jumped over a fence and disappeared just before 10.30pm on Saturday.

"He absconded from a rest area, which, with tremendous speed, he climbed out of," said Arne Andersson, the head of the Sundbo institution, to Swedish Radio.

"It happened very quickly."

The prisoner is serving a sentence for "a serious crime" and has been kept in a section for drug abusers but police said that they do not believe he is dangerous.

"There's no suggestion that a weapon is involved in this escape," said Ulf Palm, the information officer at Västmanland police, to news agency TT.

In his first attempt on Friday, the 19 year old tasted freedom for little more than an hour before he was nabbed at Västerås station on a train bound for Stockholm.

A few hours before, 18 year old double murderer Eddie Jonsson had escaped from Sundbo. He had fired at prison officers who pursued him as he and an accomplice escaped in a car. Police arrested both men at about 11.30am on Saturday in an industrial estate in Virsbo.

The National Board of Institutions will visit Sundbo on Monday for an immediate investigation.

"We already have a high security level at Sundbo, for example," said the head of information at the board, Ola Panzar-Karlsson.

"There will certainly be improvements. I completely understand that people who live around there get worried when things like this happen."

Panzar-Karlsson told TT that one thing the board will look at is whether the fence and the gates can be strengthened.

Arne Andersson told Swedish Radio that he is disapponted with the incidents of the last couple of days.

"Every escape is one too many. Historically speaking, we have reduced the number of break-outs but now it's become a whole bunch," he said.

"There are traditionally a lot of escapes around midsummer," he added.


Sources: Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, SR