24 Hours in Police Custody: UK-wide manhunt after escape from Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre near Bedford

Next week we will have another instalment of hit Channel 4 show, 24 Hours in Police Custody. And this episode looks at how a demonstration inside Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire over rumours of an inmate death led to a nationwide manhunt to find multiple escapees.

It was a normal day in April in 2023 that turned into a major operation when a day of disruption inside the centre ended with a protest in the gym.

As the security staff withdrew to avoid a violent confrontation, the detainees covered security cameras and used gym equipment to break out.

Bedfordshire Police and a helicopter with heat-seeking cameras tracked some 40 escapees as they ran across open country, catching most of them. But eight men disappeared.

Throughout the hour-long show, Det Supt Will Hodgkinson reveals that the escape was planned and all the men on the run have links to the illicit drug trade.

The operation then turns its focus on who the criminals on the run are – and who on the outside might have assisted the escape as police raid properties linked to Albanian organised crime groups.

This episode will air at 9pm on Monday, January 6.