Suspected IS sympathizer tries to escape from French prison with bedsheets

PARIS, France — French prison guards thwarted an escape attempt from the Paris region’s second-largest jail today, with French media identifying the would-be escapee as a suspected Islamic State sympathizer who dug a hole in the wall of her cell and rappelled out on knotted sheets.

The Justice Ministry says the prisoner was caught this morning. Guards immediately inspected all of the women’s cells at the Fresnes prison to ensure that other prisoners were accounted for, and an investigation was opened, the ministry says.

It gives no other details.

Broadcaster France Info says the detainee was jailed after she traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State group. It says motion detectors alerted guards that she had escaped from her cell, after she climbed down on bedsheets through a hole.