A DANGEROUS armed robber is on the run again after walking out of an open prison for the SECOND time.

Derbyshire Police say 58-year-old Alan Murphy was on day release from HMP Sudbury in Ashbourne on Friday but failed to return.

Murphy, who comes from Bolton and has family in the area, was serving a life sentence for firearms and robbery offences and police are warning the public not to approach him.

But it is not the first time Murphy has escaped from prison. In 2013 he disappeared from HMP Kirkham, an open prison near Preston.

At the time he was already serving an indeterminate sentence for a firearms offence and, after escaping, went on to carry out two attempted armed raids in Bolton just weeks later.

Murphy made an imitation shotgun using a 12 inch wooden handle, two metal tubes, cigarette lighters, a firework and air rifle pellets.

He used the weapon to threaten staff at Betfred and A&K Grocers in Halliwell in June 2013 but escaped the scene empty handed on both occasions. At Betfred staff fled to a back room and the corner shop staff "bundled" him out of the premises.

He was arrested three days later when he tried to steal a pack of lager from Morrisons on Chorley Old Road.

In September that year he was sentenced to a further eight years behind bars after Judge Peter Davies was told that if Murphy had tried to use his makeshift weapon, he could have injured himself as well as others.

Murphy is now described as being 5ft 6ins tall, with a large build, brown eyes and very short brown hair.

Anyone who has seen him, or knows his whereabouts, can phone Derbyshire Police on 101, use the website derbyshire.police.uk/Contact-Us or phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The reference number 20*128841 should be quoted.