Prisoner cuts ear in escape plot

A PRISONER cut off part of his ear so he could escape from an ambulance on the way to hospital, police said yesterday.

Michael O'Donnell, 28, told staff at Forest Bank prison in Salford at around 1:30am on Sunday that he had been injured.

An ambulance was called to take him to Hope Hospital, also in Salford, but on the way four masked men pulled up in a stolen BMW.

They smashed the ambulance windows and O'Donnell, who was escorted by three prison guards, escaped.

O'Donnell was waiting to be sentenced for conspiracy to rob and commit burglary.