About 4,000 police officers continued the hunt Wednesday for an alleged rapist who escaped from the prosecutor's office in Kawasaki the previous day.

Yuta Sugimoto, 20, of Tama Ward in Kawasaki, has been placed on the national wanted list. He was arrested Monday on suspicion, along with another man, of violently robbing a woman in the city's Asao Ward after having confined her for a couple of hours in a car on Jan. 2. They allegedly took ¥150,000 in cash from the woman. Sugimoto was arrested on suspicion of robbery, confinement and sexual assault.

According to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, Sugimoto bolted from an interrogation room on the sixth floor of the Kawasaki branch of the Yokohama District Prosecutor's Office at around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.