A prisoner escaped from Leopoldov Prison, western Slovakia, on Thursday morning. Ľubomír Behan had been serving a more than eight year sentence in the country's highest security prison for robbery before escaping. He is being has been sought by various police units.
The 24 year old man started his sentence in the autumn of 2015, having been known to police as a notorious criminal for burgling flats and cellars. On Thursday, he was in a group of prisoners helping with roof repairs at a shooting range located near the jail building. It has been suggested that he fled by jumping from the roof, taking advantage of the inattention of one of the three guards.
"Unfortunately, these are such situations that we cannot avoid", Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská stated on Thursday. According to information from RTVS, the criminal was helped by an accomplice on a motorcycle. Police have appealed to citizens of villages and towns surrounding the town of Leopoldov to provide any information on the escaped criminal. Police have also strengthened patrols, including an Interior Ministry air squadron, however, by Friday noon they had still not managed to locate the prisoner.
Locals fear possible encounters with Ľubomír Behan as he had been previously involved in martial arts. Nevertheless, police are assuming he should be unarmed. They, however, also assume he might have crossed over the country's borders. In the help for finding this imprisoned robber, Slovak police have involved other countries of the Schengen area in the search for this criminal.
The prison located in the western Slovak town of Leopoldov is the eldest of its kind in Slovakia. It is renowned as the institution with the highest number of prisoners serving life sentences in this country. During the communist regime, Leopoldov was the highest security prison. It was also the site of a massacre committed by the prisoners in 1991. In November that year, a group of escaping criminals brutally killed 5 prison guards and one prisoner.
