‘Very dangerous’ British prisoner one of five to escape from high-security prison

Mark Cameron Roscaleer, 39, had been serving a nine-year sentence for kidnap and robbery at the Vale de Judeus jail, some 43 miles (70km) north of Lisbon, Sky News reports.

According to the Portuguese prison service (DGRSP), the five men escaped on Sunday morning after receiving "external help" from accomplices who provided a ladder which "allowed the inmates to scale the wall."

The inmates were aged between 33 and 61.

Frederico Morais, president of the National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP), described Roscaleer as "very dangerous," and warned people not to approach him.

Giving details about how they escaped, Morais said: "They managed to jump a net because there are no guards to watch the perimeter... put the ladder against the wall and, from there, with a handmade rope, they climbed over the wall".

The four other men who escaped were Portuguese nationals Fernando Ferreira, 61 and Fabio Loureiro, 33, Argentinian Rodolf Lohrmann, 59, and Georgian Shergili Farjiani, 42.

Ferreira and Loureiro were both serving terms of 25 years for charges including theft, drug trafficking, kidnapping and money laundering.

Lohrmann was sentenced to 18 years and 10 months for theft, robbery, and money laundering, whilst Farjiani was given a seven-year term for violent crimes theft and forgery.

Luis Neves, national director of the Judicial Police, told the Portuguese newspaper, Jornal de Notícias that, with the exception of Shergili Farjiani, all the prisoners were "very dangerous."