Escaped prisoner seen in Preston, Bolton and Blackpool since fleeing from M55

A prisoner who escaped from a prison van after faking a medical emergency on a motorway has been seen in three areas since he ran off.

Jamie Cooper was on the way to court when he leapt from the back of a GEOAmey van that had pulled over at Junction 2 of the M55 near Catforth, Preston, shortly before 09:00 GMT on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said.

The force said the last confirmed sighting of the 33-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool but has links to Bolton, Greater Manchester, was in the early hours of Thursday morning in Blackpool.

Detectives said there had also been sightings of him in Preston and in Bolton on Wednesday afternoon and warned the public to not approach him.

Anyone who has seen him is urged to call 999.

The latest image released by police showed Mr Cooper being escorted from police custody to the GEOAmey van before setting off to court.

A spokesperson for GEOAmey said the prisoner had faked an “on-board medical emergency” and the van was forced to pull over to deal with the situation.

“The detained person involved in this emergency then overpowered and evaded the escort officers and escaped from the vehicle,” they said.

Mr Cooper is about 5ft 7in tall (1.7m) and has a medium build with short, cropped hair.

At the time he escaped he was wearing a blue coat, blue jeans and black trainers.

He was due to appear before magistrates in Lancaster to face charges of assaulting a police officer and criminal damage.