Search widens for inmates after helicopter jailbreak

The search widened last night for three inmates who had escaped with the help of a helicopter from a detention centre in Quebec a day earlier.

It was the second helicopter-aided inmate escape in Canada’s Quebec province in two years.

The three men escaped from the Orsainville Detention Centre in suburban Quebec City at around 7.45pm on Saturday with the help of a green helicopter. The chopper landed in the courtyard of the detention centre, which has barbed-wire fencing and a watch post, then quickly took off with the three inmates, heading west toward Trois-Rivieres or Montreal, police said.