Ronnie Biggs 'suffers stroke'

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, 81, was rushed to hospital today after suffering a suspected stroke.

An ambulance was called to his nursing home in Barnet after Biggs - freed from jail in 2009 - was taken ill. His son Michael confirmed that he was conscious and was to have a CT scan.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called just after 10.50am to an address in Bells Hill, Barnet.

"We sent an ambulance and a responder in a car to the scene and one patient was taken to hospital."

Speaking from Barnet General Hospital, Mr Biggs said: "He has been taken into hospital. We do not know if it is a suspected stroke or what it is.

"They are going to do a CT scan. I am here now. He is conscious at the moment. The CT scan will find out whether it is to do with an infection or another stroke.

"They are going to have to check."

Mr Biggs has suffered declining health since being transferred from prison to a care home in Bells Hill on medical grounds last year.

He first suffered a stroke in 1998 and has been admitted to hospital several times since returning to Britain in 2001.

Speaking in December, his son said he was "very ill" and could die "at any moment" and could only communicate through a word board.

Originally from Lambeth, south London, he was a member of a gang that made off with £2.6 million from a Glasgow to London mail train in 1963.

Biggs was given a 30-year sentence but escaped from Wandsworth prison, south London, in a furniture van after spending 15 months in jail.

He was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Spain, Australia and Brazil before returning to the UK voluntarily.