TOKYO (AP) _ Police on Friday captured a Chinese inmate who sparked a nationwide manhunt when he bolted from a Hiroshima prison clad only in his underwear in Japan's first prison break in more than two decades.

Police found Li Guolin, who was serving a 23-year sentence for attempted murder, near an elementary school in the southern Japan city on Friday.

Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, broke into programming to show police taking him into custody. He wore a heavy jacket and ski cap pulled down over his face _ he is suspected of stealing clothes after he jumped the prison walls.

Officials said it was the first prison break from a Japanese penitentiary since 1989.

Li, believed to be the leader of a gang of burglars, was convicted in 2005 for shooting at a police officer and stealing a squad car.

Nearly 800 officers had been assigned to the hunt for Li, a Chinese national who had been jailed for shooting at an officer and stealing a squad car in 2005, according to the Hiroshima Prefectural Police.

The escape Wednesday was the first ever from the Hiroshima prison. A corrections official with the Justice Ministry said the last escape by an inmate from within a Japanese prison was in 1989.

Li escaped by ducking out of an outdoor exercise session and scaling two walls.

Japanese media reported that Li managed to climb over a wall inside the prison campus and then use scaffolding to get over the 16-foot (5-meter) outer wall, which was under construction for repairs. Sensors on the wall were turned off because of the repair work.

Li was sent to the Hiroshima prison in 2008.