Foreign prisoner on the run after being mistakenly freed from HMP Wandsworth

A general view of HMP Wandsworth prison in London
The Met Police have said an urgent search is on the way to track and locate the prisoner (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A foreign prisoner has accidentally been released from jail for a second time in the past few weeks.

An Algerian man, 24, was freed last Wednesday from HMP Wandsworth, in south London, just days after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was freed from HMP Chelmsford in Essex, Sky News reports.

It happened after Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said there would be extra checks rolled out at UK prisons after the accidental release of Kebatu.

In a statement, London’s Metropolitan Police said: ‘Shortly after 1pm on Tuesday 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday 29 October.

‘The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man. Officers are carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody.’

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