France catches one of two escapees in bed-sheet prison break

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Dijon, France -- France on Friday caught one of two detainees who used bed sheets to escape from prison a day earlier after sawing through the bars of their cell, a prosecutor said.

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 high-security prisons.

The man was arrested south of Dijon, where the jailbreak occurred, said the eastern city’s prosecutor, Olivier Caracotch.

He said the person caught was thought to be the older of the pair, a 32-year-old man accused of violence against a partner.

That would mean a 19-year-old suspected of attempted murder in a drug-linked case was still on the run. A local prosecutor said on Thursday he was suspected of having been recruited to settle a score in a feud linked to drug trafficking.

Caracotch said around 100 police officers were still looking for him.

Guards noticed the two men had fled on Thursday before dawn.

The 32-year-old man had left a message in his cell, saying he had been held for “too long”, the prosecutor has said. It was not immediately clear for how long he had been held.

Union official Ahmed Saih, who represents prison officers at the jail, told AFP on Thursday that the inmates used “old-fashioned, manual saw blades”.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez congratulated police in a message on X for having nabbed one of the fugitives.

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

A prisoner released on Thursday told AFP that he had been one of three in a cell, “two on bunk beds and one sleeping on the floor”.

Second escape in weeks

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 caught in the nearby city of Nantes on Thursday.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has sacked the Rennes prison’s director, causing outrage among unions.

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.

The jailbreak comes after thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris in broad daylight last month, making off with priceless imperial jewels.

That investigation is ongoing, with several people arrested and charged in the case.

By Loic Vennin, AFP