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MASCOUCHE, Que. — A stunning helicopter escape from prison allegedly began with a gun being pulled on a pilot who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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A police charge sheet says accomplices used a .38-calibre handgun to hijack a helicopter and force the pilot to veer off course and toward a prison in St-Jerome.

The two alleged accomplices and the two escaped convicts, who were all arrested within hours, appeared in court Monday.

They were slapped with nearly two-dozen charges and, although they did not enter a plea, they were expected to do so as early as their next court appearance on April 16.

At least one of the suspects has been linked over the years in news reports to the Hells Angels criminal biker gang; police said Monday that they considered the fugitives armed and extremely dangerous.

There was an exchange of gunfire during the operation, police said Monday.

Provincial police spokesman Benoit Richard said the gun shots rang out at a rural cabin where the fugitives had been tracked down the previous day. He said nobody was injured.