Underwear escapee recaptured in Japan

A nationwide manhunt that riveted Japan has ended with the capture of a Chinese convict who bolted from a Hiroshima jail clad only in his underwear.

It was the country’s first prison break in more than two decades.

Police found Li Guolin, serving a 23-year sentence for attempted murder, near a primary school in the city.

Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, broke into programming to show police taking him into custody. He wore a heavy jacket and ski cap pulled down over his face. He had a knife when he was arrested.

Li is suspected of breaking into an apartment to steal clothes after he jumped the prison walls. He also stole a beer while he was there.

The government’s top spokesman apologised for the escape and vowed tougher measures to keep inmates from breaking out.

Li managed to climb over a wall inside the prison campus and then use scaffolding to get over the 16ft outer wall, which was being repaired. Sensors on the wall were turned off.

The last escape by an inmate from a Japanese prison was in 1989.