Suspected IS sympathizer tries to escape French prison using bedsheets

Detainee, who reportedly traveled to Syria to join terror group, digs a hole in her cell’s wall and rappels down before being caught

Illustrative: A new prison in Lutterbach, eastern France, on November 4, 2021. (SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)
Illustrative: A new prison in Lutterbach, eastern France, on November 4, 2021. (SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)

PARIS — French prison guards thwarted an escape attempt from the Paris region’s second-largest jail on Sunday, 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 said the prisoner was caught Sunday 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 said.

It gave no other details.

Broadcaster France Info said the detainee was jailed after she traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

It said motion detectors alerted guards that she had escaped from her cell, after she climbed down on bedsheets through a hole.

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