A notorious French criminal serving 25 years for murder made an audacious escape from prison after a helicopter carrying several heavily armed commandos landed in the facility’s courtyard, freed him from a visiting room and carried him away.

Sunday’s daring escape by Redoine Faid from the Reau Prison would be the second.  He had in 2013 blasted his way out of a different prison with explosives hidden in tissue packs but was eventually arrested at a hotel six weeks later.

The French Justice Ministry says Faid’s escape took only a few minutes, adding that the unarmed guards at the detention facility said they could do nothing to prevent the break out.

According to Martial Delabroye, a representative of the Guards’ Union, two commandos dressed in all black outfits and wearing ski masks with police armbands entered the prison to look for Faid. They then used a grinding machine to open the door to the visiting room.

When the chopper arrived, the 46-year-old Faid was meeting with his brother ( whom the French police have now taken into custody) in the visiting room. 

They also reportedly used smoke canisters to hide from video cameras while the helicopter touched down in the only part of the complex that was not covered by anti-helicopter netting.

French media reported that the three men took the pilot of the helicopter hostage at a flying club in the Paris region. He was later released with no physical injuries.

The helicopter was later found burned in the town of Garges-les-Gonesse, located in the northern suburbs of Paris. The police said Faid entered a car in a nearby parking lot, where they said they lost track of his movement.

French prosecutors were investigating Faid, who was serving time for the 2010 death of a young police officer killed during a botched robbery. Investigators were questioning his brother on Sunday afternoon.

According to French media reports, in the 1990s, Faid led a gang involved in robbing banks and armoured vans. He was arrested in 1998 after three years on the run in Switzerland and Israel.

Faid was freed in 2009 after serving 10 years. At the time, he swore that he had turned a new leaf, writing a confessional book about his life of crime and going on an extensive media tour in 2010.

Still, he was the suspected mastermind of the attempted armed robbery in 2010 which led to a high-speed chase and a shootout with policemen that killed 26-year-old Aurelie Fouquet.