An infamous inmate escaped from a maximum security wing of Milan's Opera prison over the weekend, in what was his fourth successful breakout from Italian and European detention facilities.

Taulant Toma, 41, sawed through iron bars and used knotted bed sheets to lower himself from his cell window during the night between Saturday and Sunday, exploiting the darkness and a shift change among prison officers, according to Italian authorities.

Toma, who is a citizen of Albania, is serving a sentence for robbery and other crimes that runs until October 2048. Investigators said he scaled the facility's six-metre wall before disappearing.

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Italian police have launched a nationwide manhunt with patrols, checkpoints and border controls. A

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