A fugitive who eluded thousands of police officers on a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea for more than three weeks was finally caught Monday 70 km away in the city of Hiroshima, police said.
Since 27-year-old Tatsuma Hirao escaped from a low-security prison in Ehime Prefecture on April 8, the police had been searching for him on Mukaishima, a forested 22-sq.-km island between Honshu and Shikoku with a population of around 20,000.
The convicted thief was widely believed to hiding among the more than 1,000 vacant houses on the island to elude the massive manhunt, which involved a total of 15,500 personnel, and its abundant citrus trees to survive.