France's most wanted gangster escapes prison by helicopter with three armed collaborators

It's his second successful jailbreak.

A gangster has escaped prison in France with the assistance of three heavily-armed collaborators and a helicopter.

Redoine Faid, who was France's most wanted criminal before being jailed, escaped from the Seine-et-Marne prison, near Paris, late on Sunday morning.

Three accomplices extracted Faid in what his second successful jailbreak.

The helicopter, which was registered in Belgium, landed in the prison's courtyard at around 11.20am and was later found partially burned.

Faid remains on the run hours later. In his previous escape explosives were used to blow through five security doors at Sequedin prison in 2013, he remained on the run for a month and a half before being caught. He was arrested on a European warrant in a hotel.

Last year he was sentenced on appeal to serve 25 years for masterminding a failed robbery during which a policewoman was killed.

On Sunday morning a helicopter landed in Réau prison's courtyard, the only area not covered by a net, and three armed conspirators extracted Deoine Faid from the prison. He had been imprisoned in isolation but Jean-François Forget, secretary general of the UFAP-UNSA penitentiary union, told BFMT TV no special surveillance measures were in place.

The helicopter was discovered 40 miles away in Gonesse, a smouldering wreck, where authorities believe the gang changed vehicles and made off in a van.

It's understood Faid was the only inmate who escaped during the incident.

His current whereabouts are unknown.