Bonnie waits for Clyde's rescue

COMMANDOS HAVE been drafted in to guard a prison in Albufeira in southern Portugal where the female half of a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde duo is being held after a series of violent crimes. The authorities are fearful the woman's 29-year-old lover, who broke out of the Lisbon prison where he was being held, may now try to help 22-year-old "Bonnie" to flee the long arm of the law.

Norman and Sandra are the pair's real names and the killing spree that led to them being branded public enemy number two in Germany began in their native Dortmund. Since pairing up they have committed at least six murders in five German cities.

The lovers were captured in the Algarve last October after a joint operation involving German and Portuguese police. But Norman Volker Fritz pulled off a jailbreak by making a rope ladder from bucket handles and brush handles.