London - The ailing train robber, Ronnie Biggs, who returned to a British jail earlier this year after 35 years on the run from justice, had an emergency blood transfusion yesterday, his family said.
He was taken to the hospital in south-east London late on Sunday from nearby top-security Belmarsh prison. His son Michael was by his bedside.
Biggs, who was 72 last week, has been in failing health for several years. It was one of the main reasons why, in May, he gave himself up to police after flying in from Brazil on a jet chartered by a tabloid newspaper. He was a member of the notorious gang which in 1963 fled with a then-record £2.6 million from a Glasgow-to-London mail train. He was captured and jailed for 30 years in 1964, but escaped after only 15 months and eventually fled to Brazil.
