Sackings follow daring helicopter prison break

GREEK police scoured the country yesterday for two convicts who orchestrated a brazen helicopter prison break for the second time in three years, deeply embarrassing authorities who had vowed to improve security.

Police arrested four prison guards and the helicopter pilot yesterday. Three top Greek officials were fired for the security lapse and the justice minister called for an investigation into the bank accounts of all guards working in the wing where the two convicts were held.

Vassilis Paleokostas, a bank robber and one of Greece’s most notorious convicts, and Alket Rizaj, 34, an Albanian immigrant serving a life-term for murder, were picked up on Sunday afternoon by a helicopter that flew over the courtyard of Athens’ Korydallos prison.