Two breaks out of French jail in 'old-fashioned' bed sheets escape

Two prisoners escaped from a French jail using bed sheets after sawing through the bars of their cell, a prosecutor said Thursday.

France has some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe, and staff unions have complained 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 bed sheets", Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said, without providing further details on how exactly they used the bedding.

The fugitives included a 19-year-old man held in pre-trial detention for attempted murder, he said.

The other, a 32-year-old man detained over threats and violence against a partner, had left a message in his cell, saying he had been held for "too long", the prosecutor added. It was not immediately clear for how long he had been held.

Around 100 police officers were on their trail, the prosecutor's office said.

Union official Ahmed Saih, who represents prison officers at the jail, said the inmates used "old-fashioned, manual saw blades".

"We've been warning about the risk of a jail break for months," Saih said, noting earlier reports of saw blades found inside the prison.

He called for more staff and better equipment, including "gratings that cannot be sawn through".

Three of us in a cell

Dijon prison, built in 1853, is in poor condition, with 311 inmates for 180 places, according to the justice ministry.

"Prison is very hard here," an inmate released on Thursday after eight months told AFP. 

"There were three of us in a cell: two on bunk beds and one sleeping on the floor," he said outside the prison gates.

The prison break comes less than two weeks after another escape in the northwestern city of Rennes.

A 37-year-old convict, who had more than a year still to serve for theft, fled on November 14 during an outing with fellow prisoners to the city's planetarium. 

He was arrested on Thursday in a traveller community camp in the nearby city of Nantes, sources close to the case told AFP, requesting to remain unnamed as unauthorised to speak to the media. 

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin sacked the prison's director.

Three prison directors' unions on Wednesday lashed out at the tough-talking right-wing minister, who is pushing through 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 trafficking and jihadist attacks, and neglecting the "vast majority" of other jails.

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

Hunting mobile phones

Darmanin last week announced the Dijon facility was scheduled to receive 6.3 million euros ($7.3 million), as part of a programme to eliminate mobile phones from six French prisons.

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, the national average was 135 inmates per 100 places available.

In comparison, the rate in Dijon is almost 173 inmates for 100 beds.

Notorious French drug baron Mohamed Amra, known as "The Fly", was transferred to a new supermax prison in northern France in July.

Amra made international headlines when he escaped in May 2024 when the prison van he was being transported in was ambushed by gunmen and two prison guards were killed.

He was caught in Romania and extradited to France after a months-long manhunt.