A fugitive prisoner has been arrested - 42 years after he escaped from death row.

Vo Van Ba, 70, was jailed for rape and murder in 1977 before being condemned to face a firing squad at the Can Tho prison in southern Vietnam.

However, the inmate hatched a plan for freedom and broke out of his brick cell at dawn when the guards were changing shifts. He scaled a jail fence before fleeing into the surrounding jungle on October 3, 1980.

Ba spent the next 42 years living an unassuming life in the same Mekong Delta region around Ho Chi Minh city, a short drive from where he committed the initial crimes in Hau Giang.

The fugitive even married a local woman and had four children - three boys and a girl - while working as a brick kiln worker in Ca Mau then moving to Dong Nai province in 2013.

However, a cold-case review by detectives from the Can Tho City Police department gave them several leads.

The father-of-four - who had changed his name several times - was tracked down and finally arrested at his home in Dong Nai on December 16. He reportedly admitted to being the convict who had escaped prison.

Ba was detained at the Can Tho City Police department's local station before a court appearance.

A force spokesman said: ‘Ba is a particularly dangerous wanted person, committing rape and murder, and was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Hau Giang province.

‘Ba escaped from prison on October 3, 1980. After that, he went to Kien Giang to live for more than one year and then to Ca Mau province, where he changed his name and changed his family name to Nguyen Van Tu.

‘Through the verification work, the force of the Criminal Police Department of the Can Tho City Police have applied many professional measures and arrested the suspect.'