• Two inmates escape in France
• Incident highlights overcrowding and security issues in French prisons

Two inmates escaped from a prison in eastern France on Thursday after reportedly sawing through the bars of their cell and using bed sheets to flee the facility, in an incident that underscores security problems in France’s overcrowded prisons.

The public prosecutor stated that the inmates sawed through the bars of their cell and escaped using bed sheets overnight, marking the second such incident in recent weeks.

Prison guards noticed the escape shortly before dawn, according to the prison service, without specifying exactly how the breakout was carried out.

Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said the two men “appear to have sawed through the bars” and “fled using bed sheets,” without providing further details on the method.

Caracotch clarified that 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 imprisoned since 2023 on charges of threats and violence.

The incident comes ten days after another escape in Rennes, western France, where a 37-year-old prisoner fled during an outing and was serving a sentence for theft until 2027.

It was not immediately clear whether he had been recaptured.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin dismissed the prison director following the escape.

Three prison director unions criticized the minister on Wednesday, accusing him of focusing on transferring the most dangerous traffickers to high-security prisons while neglecting the majority of other facilities.

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

France has some of the most overcrowded prisons in Europe, ranking third after Slovenia and Cyprus, according to a Council of Europe report published in July.