Shin Chang-won, who stunned the nation with his jailbreak in 1997 and more than two years on the run, was in critical condition after attempting suicide in his prison cell on Thursday, prison officials said.

The 44-year-old convict attempted suicide via strangulation using a rubber glove in his solitary cell in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. He was spotted by a prison guard and was transferred to a nearby hospital, according to the Ministry of Justice. Shin is unconscious but safe, it added.

The motive for his attempted suicide may have been his father’s death last month, the ministry said, quoting officials at the prison.

Shin was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 for the murder of four people and robbery. In 1997, he escaped from a prison in Busan by cutting off an iron bar at his cell.

Then the fugitive surprised the nation after he was found to have led a luxurious life while evading a police manhunt for two and a half years. Shin, wearing an expensive Missoni T-shirt, was captured at an apartment in Suncheon after a citizen’s report to the police.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)