An inmate bust out of a prison van, hopped on a moped and sped away before getting caught by officers yesterday.

The prisoner broke the van window as it stopped in traffic near Pompano Beach Club on Middle Road, Southampton and leaped out and then challenged an Oleander rentals bike customer who was trying out a bike.

He then grabbed it and sped off but became tangled in bushes and was forced to ditch the machine.

An Oleander employee told how the incident unfolded shortly after 1 p.m. yesterday.

She said: ?A car stopped to let a taxi out. The prisoner busted the window out with his feet and got out the window. There was broken glass all over the road.

?He hopped over the wall, when his eyes met mine he looked at me like he had to get away. I screamed.

?The Prison officers parked in front of Oleander. There was someone training on a bike.

?The prisoner pushed the rider out the way and shouted ?Give me the bike, give me the bike?. It was already started. But he could not get through.?

She said the route to the road was blocked by the prison van and he became tangled in bushes as he tried to head the other way.

He then ran off but the officers caught him. ?They got him. They did their job, they tackled his backside. There were four Prison officers and a policeman who was escorting them.

?He was smart and crafty, like a little fox. It scared us.?

The witness said the Prison officers spread out and managed to corner the man after he had ran about 50 feet into the Port Royal Golf Course. ?It was like trying to catch a mouse, they came from all different directions, blocking him in.?

She said the inmate, who had been heading up to Westgate was 20-23 years old, with a neat moustache.

Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Robert Horton said the prisoner was being taken with two others from Magistrates? Court to Westgate when he managed to escape before being pursued and caught by the two Prison officers from the van as well as another who arrived on the scene.

He said: ?The circumstances as to how he got out from a moving vehicle are being investigated. I don?t have the details of how he was apprehended.?

Mr. Horton said no one was injured in the incident and he said the other two prisoners had remained in the vehicle.