A violent convict was on the run this week after pulling off a daring escape from Wandsworth Prison on Monday afternoon.

Police scrambled a helicopter to join the search for Eamon Donaghue, 27, who is believed to have ditched his prison clothes for a prison officer's uniform he found while cleaning the officers' mess hall.

Donaghue was described as a low-security inmate at the category B jail, where an investigation will be held into how the security breach happened, but police were warning the public not to approach him.

The 5ft 8in white Irishman, who is of medium build with green eyes and brown hair, was jailed in 2001 for three and a half years after stealing a car and then using it to attack a police officer.

Police confirmed they were combing the local area after the alarm was raised at 1.30pm, but it is believed their net was cast even wider to include the search of an address in Wimbledon, where Donaghue is thought to have relatives, and another in Streatham.

A police spokesman warned any suspicious members of the public not to hesitate: "If they think they have seen him or recognised his description, or if they have information about his whereabouts, they should call 999."

Prison authorities labelled Donaghue an absconder rather than an escapee, because he was officially allowed out of the prison on licence in order to carry out the cleaning work.

But his flight was more audacious than that of a regular licensed prisoner who simply fails to return from an outside appointment, as he had to make his escape unnoticed from the officers' mess just outside the prison walls.

The Prison Service said all prisoners on temporary licence were put through a risk assessment, so Donaghue's escape marks a serious breach of trust and the failure of HMP Wandsworth to spot a likely absconder.

Donaghue, who was still on the run as the Guardian went to press, is the first to escape or abscond from Wandsworth in more than two years and joins a list of the Wandsworth escapees which includes Ronnie Biggs, who scaled a 30ft wall in broad daylight in July 1965.

May 1, 2003 10:00