Ma Zhiqiang, a prison fugitive wanted by China's Ministry of Public Security, was caught in central China's Henan Province, police have revealed.

The 32-year-old fugitive, who broke out of jail in Xingguo county in the early hours of October 30 with seven others, was nabbed by 20 policemen in a rubbish collecting center in northern Henan's Jiaozuo city on Thursday evening, two days after several residents there recognized the man from an arrest warrant.

The other seven jail breakers had already been captured, said Li Xiangdong, deputy head of the Jiaozuo public security bureau.

According to Ma, he had hidden in the mountains for six days after his escape. Then he travelled to Nanchang, Jiangxi's capital by train, before taking a bus to Jiaozuo.

Ma, a rubbish collector who had worked in a maltose factory in Jiaozuo, was arrested at the end of last year for stealing and selling equipment and materials from large transformer substations in Guangzhou. He was held in jail awaiting trial when he made his prison break.

Earlier report said that the eight criminal suspects attacked a warden, took his keys and then fooled the guards by pretending to carry out assigned work outside the detention center.

China News Service quoted sources with the police as saying that the warden of the county jail had been sacked.

The news agency's report said the case had drawn serious concern from the public security authorities as it was "very rare" in China to have such a large number of escapees.

Police issued a warrant for arrest of the man on Tuesday with a reward of 10,000 yuan (1,315.8 U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2007)