Rome. Two gunmen yesterday hijacked a Red Cross helicopter, lifted two inmates from a Rome prison courtyard and flew off in a hail of automatic gunfire. A third prisoner ran to the helicopter, but slipped in the rain.

After taking off from the prison, the helicopter landed in a Rome football field where a match was underway, and the hijackers and escapees fled by car.

Officials said the two hijackers spoke French and that one of the escapees, a Tunisian-born Frenchman, was sought by French authorities for a Paris bank robbery and murder. The other one was suspected of supplying arms to Italian terrorists.

Police said the hijackers walked into San Camilo Hospital in Western Rome and cornered the helicopter pilot, Mr. Mauro Pompa, aged 42. They handcuffed the pilot's 10-year-old son to a radiator and forced Mr. Pompa at gunpoint to take them to the helicopter, parked across the street.

The white helicopter with red crosses painted on each side then flew across the city to Rebibbia prison in eastern Rome. There, it hovered a yard above the courtyards where about 50 inmates were exercising, deputy warden, Mr. Giancarlo Baldassini, said. As the hijackers fired automatic weapons for cover and lowered a rope ladder, two inmates dashed to the helicopter and jumped in. A guard at Rebibbia prison was slightly injured by flying glass during the gun battle.

Two shots fired by a guard hit the helicopter.

(from«The Guardian»)