Berlin - Police in Germany said they had begun an international manhunt Friday, after two convicted criminals broke out of a prison in the western city of Aachen. The two convicts, named by police as Michael Heckhoff, 50, and Peter Paul Michalski, 46, were serving sentences for murder and kidnapping.
According to Cologne police, the two men overpowered a prison guard and a gate keeper late Thursday, and once outside hijacked a taxi.
The men then forced the driver to take them towards the city of Cologne, and on the way transferred into another taxi with the original driver as hostage.
However the two men then escaped by foot through the city centre, where pursuing police lost the trail. The two men are still at large.
The two taxi drivers were released, and had suffered shock.
German police said that forces in neighbouring countries are helping with the search. Cologne is near both the Belgian and French borders.
