Police hunting for Liverpool prisoner Shaun Walmsley have arrested four men.
Armed officers swooped on a car in the Canford Cliffs area of Poole in Dorset on Friday afternoon in connection with the 28-year-old’s escape last month.
Walmsley managed to break free after two men confronted prison guards accompanying him following a visit to Aintree University Hospital.
He is one of four men serving life sentences for the 2014 stabbing of Anthony Duffy with a minimum term of 30 years.
Two men, both aged 24 and from Toxteth, and two 25-year-olds, from Maghull and Vauxhall respectively, were detained on suspicion of assisting an offender.
All four were taken back to Merseyside for questioning and have since been bailed pending a disposal decision.
A Dorset Police spokesman said: “During the planned operation, specialist officers discharged tyre deflation rounds directly into the tyres to stop the vehicle and arrest the four men.
“Nobody was injured in the incident and no other weapons were discharged.”