They had a two-hour window to try their luck.
Two inmates of Moldovan nationality escaped the night from Friday to Saturday from the Périgueux remand center by sawing through the bars of their cell, the prison administration and a prison union said.
The inmates, who shared the same cell, sawed off the bars of their window before going through the roofs and going down and up along several walls, reports the FO Pénitentiaire union, thus confirming information from the daily Sud-Ouest.
An investigation has been opened.
Once out of the window, the two men rappelled down the wall of their building, four meters high, before climbing up a second similar one, until they reached the main courtyard and the changing rooms.
In this part of the prison, they managed to force the bars of a window to the outside, where they lowered a last four-meter wall that separated them from the street.
"Well prepared guys"
The two men, imprisoned provisionally for "some time" pending their judgment in a case of banditry, took advantage of a time slot between two rounds of surveillance to dress up, according to Thierry Dumonteil, the FO Pénitentiaire delegate in Dordogne.
“These are guys who are well prepared physically […] who must be very talented in rock climbing,” commented the trade unionist on France Bleu Périgord radio station.
Supervisors noticed their absence during the 5 a.m. round, the previous one taking place at 3 a.m.
The inmates were in charge of the household for a time in this prison, which accommodates people in pre-trial detention.
They had been noticed recently, when a phone had been found on them, explained Thierry Dumonteil.
"We are not cut out to keep organized crime", argued the trade unionist on France Bleu Périgord, ensuring that "the agents have done their job".
“Even though at one point they walked past a camera area, it's nighttime, and they're not thermal cameras.
Nothing is perfect, but we will have to sit around a table, look at the flaws and add a little security where it was lacking, ”added the trade unionist, criticizing the "aging" state of the cameras.
According to France Bleu Périgord, in memory of supervisors, this escape by escalation is a first for the remand center, put into service in 1863. The establishment had on January 1 119 prisoners for 81 places, according to the International Prison Observatory (OIP).