GERMAN POLICE HAVE captured a convicted sex offender and robber who escaped his prison guards during a day-release visit to a Cologne beer hall.

Authorities admitted the convict, described as dangerous, slipped away during an outing on Wednesday while he and one of his guards were in the restaurant’s toilet.

“This should never have happened,” North Rhine-Westphalia state justice ministry spokesman Detlef Feige told local newspaper the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger.

The convict, named as Peter Breidenbach, had in 1991 been sentenced to a nine-year jail term for rape and serious robbery, and had since then been held in preventive custody.

He was not hand-cuffed when he managed to escape, near the city’s famed Gothic cathedral.

Police had said that anyone who sees Breidenbach should not approach him. Express.de reports that Breidenbach has now been arrested in the city of Bruhl. The paper reports that he had stolen a debit card and used it to purchase a bike and spare wheel, which he used to flee.

The paper reports that he was found sitting on a bike on the outskirts of the town.

Reports say that he had been spotted in the nearby city of Bonn, but this has been unconfirmed.

With AFP reporting

Read: ‘No means no’: Norway sends migrants on anti-rape courses

Read: Hunt for convicted sex offender who escaped during day-release at beer hall