Korean Houdini jail-breaks again

The story of a 50-year-old man who escaped from a Daegu prison through a very small food slot in a Houdini-style breakout has gripped the nation throughout this week, as the fugitive continues to remain at large more than four days after he absconded.

The man, named Choi Gap-bok, reportedly squeezed through a 15-centimeter-high, 45-centimeter-wide food slot in the bars of a detention cell at Daegu's Dongbu Police Station around 5 a.m. on Sept. 17, while all three police officers on duty slept.

"He escaped from the prison cell in less than a minute after moving flexibly like an octopus," a police investigator was quoted as saying after reviewing footage from a prison surveillance camera. The escapee is 165 centimeters tall and weighs 52 kilograms, the investigator noted.

Choi, who was detained on Sept. 12 on robbery charges, is known as a yoga master after improving his physical fitness during previous detentions totaling 23 years, according to his acquaintances and investigators.

The fugitive was reportedly seen fleeing to a remote mountain in Cheongdo, south of Daegu, late Monday night. Since then, police have received 57 reported sightings of Choi, mainly in the southeastern region surrounding Daegu, 302 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

On Friday, a man appearing to be Choi was reportedly seen on a mountain near Daejeon, in central South Korea, prompting a massive manhunt in the area by police troops.

Choi is known to be the head of a theft ring, and previously escaped from police custody while on a convoy bus carrying prisoners to jail 22 years ago. That time, he slipped through iron bars encaging the bus, and was reapprehended two days later.

The police have not yet publicly disclosed the CCTV footage showing Choi's escape from the Daegu cell to the public, raising suspicions of how he managed to escape through the extremely small slot. (Yonhap)