Two fleece French jail using bed sheets

Lyon: Two detainees at a French prison saw through the bars of their cell and escaped using bed sheets overnight, a prosecutor said Thursday, in the second such incident in recent weeks.

Guards noticed that they had escaped from the prison in the eastern city of Dijon shortly before dawn, the prison service said, without adding how exactly they made it out.

The pair "seem to have sawn through bars" and "fled using bed sheets", Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said, without providing further details on how exactly they did it.

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.

The prison break comes 10 days after another escape in the western city of Rennes.

A 37-year-old convict, who was supposed to be serving time until early 2027 for theft, fled during an outing with fellow prisoners to the city's planetarium.

It was not immediately clear if he had been caught.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin sacked the prison's director.

Three prison director unions on Wednesday lashed out at the tough-talking right-wing minister, who is carrying out a plan to lock up the most dangerous drug traffickers in supermax prisons.

They accused him of "devoting all the resources of a debt-ridden state" to the high-security prisons for those accused of drug users and jihadist attacks, and neglecting the "vast majority" of other prisons.

“While the justice minister parades around in overfunded facilities, other (prison) services are suffering,” they said in a joint statement.

France has some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe, ranking third worst after Slovenia and Cyprus, according to a Council of Europe report published in July.

In early October, they hosted 135 inmates per 100 places available.