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Peter Madsen: Police surround Danish inventor who killed journalist after prison escape attempt

A convicted murderer, who killed a journalist on board his submarine, has been surrounded by police and arrested after trying to escape from prison.

Peter Madsen, 49, tried to flee Herstedvester Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for the murder of Kim Wall in 2017.

Danish police have said a man has been arrested after an attempted escape and the area has been cordoned off.

Local media reported the situation continued for at least an hour but the convict has now been driven away by officers.

Photos from the scene in Albertslund, Copenhagen, show Madsen sitting against a fence surrounded by armed police.

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Two officers lie on their stomachs on the ground in front of him and it looks like he is wearing a belt-like object around his stomach.

Madsen had threatened prison guards with a "pistol-like object" and also claimed to have a bomb, according to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

A witness, Frank Jensen, told the newspaper that police suddenly surrounded a white van, opened the door and pulled Madsen out of it.

Later pictures from the scene, which is a few hundred metres from the prison, show vehicles attempting to block the situation from view.

Madsen, who was a minor celebrity in Denmark, was convicted of Ms Wall's murder in 2018.

The 30-year-old Swedish journalist had been writing an article about his inventions and was travelling on his submarine when she was killed.

The inventor initially claimed he had dropped her off on shore and did not know what happened to her, but later insisted she had died accidentally after her remains were found.

Madsen admitted dismembering her body and dumping her in the Baltic Sea.

After a 12-day trial that received worldwide attention, he was convicted of the "especially brutal" murder that prosecutors said was sexually motivated.