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Escaped convicts hijack car
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Two escaped prisoners, one of them an armed robber convicted of culpable driving causing death, hijacked a car leased to South Korea's Olympic committee near the main site of the Sydney Games on Tuesday. The four occupants -- one a member of South Korea's National Olympic Committee -- were freed unharmed a short time later, and the escaped convicts abandoned the car and fled on foot. The car was seized at Silverwater, a Sydney suburb adjacent to Olympic Park and the site of the large minimum-security Silverwater prison, shortly before 4 p.m. (0500 GMT), according to poice. None of the occupants was taken hostage in the escape, said Sydney Olympics organizing committee spokesman Milton Cockburn. One of the occupants was Yoon Jong-koo, an official of the South Korean Olympic committee, and the other three were South Korean volunteers from Australia, said Choi Eun-gi, a spokesman for the delegation. A married couple - Olympic volunteers Peter and Terry Lee - were two of the others along with a volunteer driver, police said. Mrs. Lee, who is six months' pregnant, was taken to a specialist maternity hospital for observation. A spokesperson for the New South Wales corrective services department, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, said one of the prisoners was 26-year-old Chad Richards, who had been on weekend detention. He had breached his weekend conditions and was in prison full-time for stealing a car. The spokesman the other man was Alan Stebens, 35, who was serving 10 years for armed robbery and culpable driving causing death. Stebens was due for release in April 2002. Choi said South Korean officials were still getting details of the hijacking from the four, but the hijacking was foiled by a prison guard who grappled with the escaped prisoners. As the guard struggled with the men, the car's occupants were able to flee, the corrective services spokesman said. Two got out immediately and the other two jumped free when the car began to drive off. One of the escaped convicts kicked the prison guard in the chest and the escaped prisoners sped away. A senior prison officer gave chase in his car while phoning the prisoners' whereabouts to police. Police patrol cars took over the chase, but it proved futile when the hijacked van, a Toyota Tarago, sped on to a nearby freeway. The vehicle was later found abandoned at Marrickville in Sydney's inner west around 4.30 p.m. Police said Stebens and Richards were last seen walking toward the nearby Sydenham railway station.
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