Mas Selamat Kastari AFP/Getty Images 'ORANGE NOTICE' 'ORANGE NOTICE' INTERPOL's urgent worldwide security alert warns police, public institutions and other international organizations about potential threats posed by disguised weapons, parcel bombs and other dangerous objects or materials. The alert also contains information and images of objects, materials or other threats that would be of concern to security officials at global institutions and organizations. Orange Notices, the first new INTERPOL notice to be created since 1946, is issued from the General Secretariat in Lyon, France, via the organization's National Central Bureaus in its 181 member countries. INTERPOL already issues a series of colour-coded notices, including the famous Red Notice for wanted international fugitives. Source: INTERPOL SINGAPORE (AP)  Interpol said Friday it has issued a worldwide security alert following the escape of an alleged Islamic terror leader from a jail in Singapore. The international police organization said it put out an "Orange Notice" for Mas Selamat Kastari, a suspected commander of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah's Singapore arm. Mas Selamat, 47, who is accused of once plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport, escaped from a detention center Wednesday. The Interpol notice, which includes Mas Selamat's photograph and fingerprints, was issued to the group's 186 national member bureaus following a request by Singapore, the agency said in a statement on its website. "When it comes to escapes, the first hours are crucial," Interpol's executive director of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin, told the Associated Press. "The state of Singapore has put into operation everything that's needed to be done. It's a small country, so it's easy to cross and leave." Louboutin said authorities have "no trail for the moment." Mas Selamat is "someone who presents a potential physical danger to others, but also a potential danger by organizing future bombings," he said. The government has said Mas Selamat escaped due to a "security lapse" at the detention center. He had been taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for his family to make a scheduled visit. He escaped after being granted permission to visit the washroom, authorities said. Singaporean authorities have launched a nationwide manhunt for the man they say walks with a limp and is not known to be armed. Police and military personnel set up a blockade around the detention center, while security was tightened at the city-state's land, air and sea entry ports. It takes less than an hour to drive from one end of Singapore to the other. The affluent, highly modernized Southeast Asian country is only a short boat ride from Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesian immigration authorities put border areas on "high alert" in case Mas Selamat attempted to enter the country, Indonesia's presidential spokesman, Dino Pati Djalalan, said Thursday. "Until now there has been no report that Kastari has entered Indonesia," he said. Security breaches are virtually unheard of in Singapore, a small and densely populated island whose sophisticated intelligence system has been liberally used to ensure order and safety. Among its biggest successes were pre-empting alleged plots to bomb the U.S. Embassy, the American Club and government buildings in 2001 — schemes in which Mas Selamat allegedly had a hand. Mas Selamat, said to be a father of five, fled Singapore in December 2001 following the arrests of 13 other suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members. Indonesian authorities detained and deported him to Singapore in February 2006, and he had since been held in the city-state under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial. Singapore, a close ally of the United States, was named an al-Qaeda target in a transcript from alleged al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, held last year at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Enlarge By Wong Maye-E, AP Singapore policemen patrol the vicinity of a detention center, where a suspected terror leader escaped Wednesday, watch a couple walk across an overhead bridge. Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.
Interpol has issued an "Orange Notice" for the leader of southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiyah, Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who escaped from a detention center Wednesday.

Singapore Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told his Parliament that a "security lapse" is what led to Mas Selamat's escape. While waiting to visit his family, Mas Selamat escaped from the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road detention facility shortly after 4 PM local time after being granted permission to use the washroom. The escape led to Mr. Wong apologizing for the incident and the beginning of an island-wide manhunt for Selamat.

"When it comes to escapes, the first hours are crucial," said Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol's executive director of police services. "The state of Singapore has put into operation everything that's needed to be done. It's a small country, so it's easy to cross and leave."

Selamat, a 47-year-old former bus mechanic and a father of 5, was once accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport. He is "someone who presents a potential physical danger to others, but also a potential danger by organizing future bombings," Louboutin said.

Mas Selamat bin Kastari, a Singaporean national of Indonesian birth and extraction, stands 158 cm (about 5 feet 2 1/4 inches) tall and walks with a limp in his left leg.

After the "Orange Notice" was released, Mas Selamat's picture and fingerprints were released to Interpol's 186 member countries. He remains at large.