Two prisoners escaped from a French jail using bedsheets after sawing through the bars of their cell, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
France has some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe, and staff unions have complained that the state is neglecting normal jails as it moves narco criminals into new supermax prisons.
Guards noticed that the two men had escaped from the jail in the eastern city of Dijon shortly before dawn, the prisons authority said.
The pair “seem to have sawn through bars” and “fled using bedsheets”, Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said, without providing further details on how exactly they used the bedding.
The fugitives are a 19-year-old man held in pre-trial detention since October 2024 for attempted murder in a drug-related case, and a 32-year-old man incarcerated since 2023 over threats and violence against a partner, Caracotch said.
Union official Ahmed Saih, who represents prison officers at the jail, said the inmates used “old-fashioned, manual saw blades”.