Austrian prison escapee returns, fed up of life in the sun

BERLIN – A man who says he fled an Austrian prison over a decade ago has turned himself in to police in Salzburg, telling them he was fed up with living in Spain’s Canary Islands.

Police said the 64-year-old, carrying two suitcases, went to police at Salzburg’s railway station Saturday night and told them he was a fugitive prisoner who had just arrived from Munich Airport.

They said in a statement Monday that he told officers he had spent the past 10 1/2 years on Tenerife, a popular vacation island, and wanted to return home because “Tenerife is not as nice as it used to be and he had lived there long enough.”

Police verified that he had fled a prison in eastern Austria. He was taken to a Salzburg jail.