Suspect locks up duty warden, escapes police cell

Drug suspect Anant Komolwanit, 23, locks Pol Sen Sgt Maj Ratchada Supawong inside a cell at Sena police station in Ayutthaya province and flees early on Monday night. (Photo from police surveilance camera, supplied by Sunthon Pongpao)

AYUTTHAYA: A 23-year-old drug suspect who locked up a duty warden and escaped from the Sena district police station cell on Monday was recaptured after an extensive manhunt involving about 200 police and volunteers.

Anant Komolwanit was apprehended in a nearby forest early on Tuesday night.

He was earlier arrested at his house in Moo 3 village of tambon Sam Toom after police found 94 methamphetamne pills there on Sunday evening.

He was taken to Sena police station for interrogation. While in detention he complained he had stomachache and diarrhoea.

Police took him to Sena Hospital on Sunday afternoon, but a doctor found nothing wrong with him and he was returned to his cell.

About 9pm on Monday, he shouted that a snake had bitten him in the cell. Pol Sen Sgt Maj Ratchada Supawong, the duty warden, entered the cell with a wooden stick. He found the detainee was not bitten.

When the policeman moved deeper into the cell to look for the supposed snake, Mr Anant slipped out through the open door, locked him inside and fled from the station.

Residents told searching police they had seen the fugitive in a forest in Sena district.

After his rearrest, Mr Anant admitted he had only pretended to be sick and faked the snake bite, hoping for a chance to escape.

He lamented that he was quickly recaptured because such a large group had been assembled to hunt him down, and local residents had quickly cooperated with the police.