A PRISONER escaped during a hospital visit this evening - fleeing on a stolen motorbike.

The 36-year-old man was a prisoner at HMP Northumberland and had been taken to Cramlington Hospital by prison staff for treatment.

Police were called at 6pm after the prisoner ran off as he was leaving the hospital.

He subsequently escaped on a motorbike which he had stolen.

Officers carried out a search and found the motorbike and the escaped prisoner some ten miles away at an address in Wallsend two hours later at 8pm.

The prsioner has been arrested on suspicion of escaping from lawful custody while two others - a man aged 27 and a woman aged 25 - have both been arrested on suspicion of assisting an escapee.

Enquiries are continuing into the incident.