Triệu Quân Sự, 31, was arrested on Wednesday in Thanh Hóa Province.— Photo dantri.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — A convicted killer, who escaped from a prison in Thành Long Commune, Thạch Thành District, Thanh Hóa Province has been captured 12 hours after he fled custody.

Triệu Quân Sự, 31, was arrested in the province’s Hà Trung District, Major General Trần Phú Hà, director of the provincial Police Department said on Wednesday afternoon.

Sự stole a bike from a local household while escaping but it broke off after a while, so he stole another one to travel to Yên Dương Commune, where he sold it off for VNĐ 100,000 before his suspicious behaviour caught the attention of local authorities.

This was the third time he escaped from his prison.

In 2012, he murdered the owner of a coffee shop in Long Biên District in Hà Nội to rob the premises. In 2013, he received life-sentence for murder, robbery, and desertion from the army.

At the end of 2015, while serving his sentence in Quảng Ngãi central province, Sự escaped from prison. He was arrested a month later, and was sentenced to three more years for escaping and three years for robbery.

In June 2020, while in prison in Quảng Ngãi, Sự climbed over the watch tower, clinging to the water pipe to escape. He was arrested 15 days later in a computer games shop in Tam Kỳ City, Quảng Nam Province.

The Thanh Hóa authorities on Tuesday night issued an urgent notice to search for Sự.

The police advised that Sự was very dangerous, so when people detect him, they should not approach him but immediately report his whereabouts to the nearest authorities.

Vũ Trọng Hùng, chairman of the Thành Long Commune People’s Committee, said that after receiving information, the commune immediately alerted six stations to search for Sự.

Local authorities also broadcast details of the case on the loudspeaker system so that residents can be vigilant.

Hùng added that at about 10pm on Tuesday, the police discovered a mobile phone sim card, which had just been active, in a forest behind the prison in Thành Long Commune. The police suspected that the sim card was used by Sự.

Fearful of the danger to the public, an elite police unit was assigned to search for Sự after he escaped from prison. — VNS