Dijon Prison Break: Two Inmates Saw Through Bars and Escaped on Bed Sheets

Two inmates cut through the metal bars of their cell and lowered themselves on bed sheets to escape Dijon prison shortly before dawn, prosecutors and prison officials said.

Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said the pair 'seem to have sawn through bars' and then fled using bedding, though exact details of how they rigged the sheets were not immediately available. Authorities deployed around 100 police officers to track the two fugitives.

One escapee is a 19-year-old held in pre-trial detention on an attempted murder charge. The other is a 32-year-old detained on accusations of threats and violence against a partner; he reportedly left a note in his cell saying he had been held 'for too long'.

Prison union representative Ahmed Saih said the inmates used 'old-fashioned, manual saw blades' and warned that staff have raised the risk of a breakout for months after saw blades were reportedly found inside the facility. He called for more personnel and improved security hardware, including gratings that cannot be sawn through.

Dijon prison, built in 1853, is badly overcrowded: the justice ministry reports 311 inmates in a facility designed for 180 places. One recently released inmate described severe overcrowding, saying, 'There were three of us in a cell: two on bunk beds and one sleeping on the floor.'

The escape follows another recent breakout in Rennes less than two weeks earlier, when a 37-year-old convict slipped away during an outing to a planetarium and was later arrested near Nantes. After that incident, the Rennes prison director was dismissed. Three unions representing prison directors publicly criticized Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, accusing him of concentrating resources on new supermax prisons for organised drug offenders and jihadist suspects while neglecting the majority of ordinary jails.

Last week the minister announced that Dijon would receive €6.3 million as part of a programme to remove mobile phones from six prisons, a measure officials say is meant to curb external coordination and contraband. France's prisons face severe overcrowding: a Council of Europe report ranked the country third worst in Europe for overcrowding, and national figures show about 135 inmates per 100 places on average, compared with almost 173 inmates per 100 beds in Dijon.

The incidents come amid wider concern over high-profile offenders. Notorious drug boss Mohamed Amra, nicknamed 'The Fly', was transferred this year to a new supermax after a dramatic escape in May 2024—when his transport van was ambushed and two prison guards were killed. Amra was later captured in Romania and extradited to France.