News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A manhunt is underway in Switzerland for a Syrian rapist who broke out of jail with the aid of a female guard who fell in love with him, it has been reported.

Police fear the duo may already have left the country after Monday night's jailbreak in Zurich where 27-year-old former refugee Hassan Kiko was serving four years for rape.

In 2011 he told a Swiss newspaper he fled Syria after being imprisoned for three months by the Assad regime.

The female guard he fled with is 32 and has not been named by police although her picture has been circulated with his and local media said she is called Angela Magdici.

Her husband gave an interview with Swiss media.

The 25-year-old, Vasili Magdici, said he and Angela had been separated for around three months after he realised she had found someone else, but he hoped they would get back together and they are still married.

Read more:

(Image: CEN)

He said: "People were asking me why we were not together and what was going on in our relationship, but since Tuesday when all of this ended up in the media I feel even worse."

He said that he got to know her three years ago at a Thai boxing event and they married in 2014.

He said: "I loved her, and I wanted to have children with her.

"But then three months ago she told me she wanted to split.

"She moved out of the house when I was away, and took everything with her. Friends helped and I knew nothing about it until I returned."

He said that he noticed five months ago that she had changed and realised there was another man involved. But he did not have the faintest idea who.

Read more:

He said: "I was there when she got an SMS in Arabic and her best friend was asked to translate it as quickly as possible."

He said he now believes that the message came from Hassan Kiko.

One week before the pair split, he noticed that she had started reading the Koran.

Speaking to Central European News, he said that because he was originally from Romania he was an Orthodox Christian, and Angela was Catholic, and he was surprised that she had chosen to become a Muslim.

He said: "I only know the Bible, I had no idea why she suddenly had interest in the Koran."

(Image: CEN)

He added that three months ago she had been glued to the TV watching a documentary film about Syria and afterwards she did not even want to sleep.

Then she simply vanished from their shared flat in Dielsdorf.

He believed that she moved in with her best friend.

He said that the car in which they escaped, the BMW X1, was a car that he and his wife had bought together.

"It is clear that the human factor played a role in this affair," said Rebecca de Silva, a spokeswoman for Zurich's cantonal correctional department.

"The guards are in contact with the inmates and look after them.

"A certain intimacy is created among them."

The escape is the first from the Limmattal prison which opened in a Zurich suburb in 2010.

According to authorities, Magdici was on duty on Monday evening with a colleague who was having his rest break when she used her electronic keys to free Hassan.

Prison officials said it "hurt" that one of their own was involved in the escape and said they had no clue what she was planning or the depth of intimacy that had grown up between her and Hassan.

Magdici has been employed as a jail guard since 2013.

Interpol has been alerted.