Notorious Robber Escaped Prison Using Explosives, Taking Wardens Hostage

 Police and helicopters are hunting Redoine Faid, one of France's most dangerous gangsters who is known for robbing vehicles carrying cash in transit.

State prosecutor Frederic Fevre said Faid was a "particularly dangerous prisoner" who was armed and still in possession of explosives.

He said Faid, 40, had four hostages with him during the jail break in the northern town of Sequedin.

One was released just outside the prison and another a few hundred metres away, before the final two were left along a road.

The wardens were said to be extremely shocked, but safe.

Faid later set his getaway car on fire, abandoning it south of the city of Lille, and then got into a second vehicle which police were attempting to track.

rance's justice minister Christiane Taubira said Interpol had been called in to help find Faid and a Europe-wide warrant had been issued.

"The hunt will initially focus on Belgium of course because we share a border but also extend to the entire Schengen area and beyond," she told reporters in Sequedin.

Wardens' unions described the prison break as "an act of war" and argued the jail was inadequate for such dangerous convicts.

Union official Etiene Dobremetz said Faid had received a visit from his wife earlier in the day.

But the wife's lawyer vehemently denied any suspicion of her involvement in the escape.

"It happened very quickly, it was clearly very well organised, we are still busy putting the facts together," a local administrative official said.

Rose Lafont was visiting her son in prison at the time and described the chaos caused by Faid's escape.

"I thought my last hour had come," she said.

"Suddenly, everything started blowing up. The walls started shaking, as did the windows and the doors. I was really scared."

Faid is also known for co-authoring a book in 2009 following his release on parole after a decade in prison for robbery.

The novel was about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in Paris's impoverished crime-ridden suburbs.

He said his life of crime was inspired by American films such as Scarface and Heat - in which Robert de Niro's character carries out an armoured car heist.

Despite vowing he had turned his back on crime, Faid was suspected in 2010 of being the mastermind behind an armed robbery in which a young policewoman was killed in a shoot-out.

He was returned to prison in 2011 for failing to comply with his parole conditions and was due to serve the remaining eight years of his original sentence.