Breakout from French 'sieve' jail

Breakout from French 'sieve' jail

French officials are said to be furious at the latest escape

A murder suspect has walked free from a jail on the French island of Corsica after threatening guards with a fake gun, in the latest in a series of embarrassing escapes from the prison.

Joseph Menconi, alleged to have links to organised crime, sawed through the bars of his cell in Borgo prison and climbed across roofs before brandishing what appeared to be a gun at guards on duty at the prison gates in the early hours of Friday morning.

Three accomplices armed with a fake rocket-launcher were waiting for him outside, officials said.

Mr Menconi is currently being prosecuted in several criminal cases, including three murders.

He also managed to escape from Borgo prison in 1998, with the use of ladders provided by accomplices, before being recaptured in Paris about two months ago.

Security fears

French police officials are said to be furious at the news of Mr Menconi's escape, with police union Synergie saying it had repeatedly issued warnings about security in what it termed "this sieve of a prison," French news agency AFP reported.

In June 2001 drugs trafficker Louis Carboni was winched dramatically to freedom by a helicopter that had been hijacked earlier by two accomplices.

And one month earlier three prisoners managed to bluff their way out of the prison after their friends sent a counterfeit fax to the governor demanding their release.

Borgo prison currently houses around 180 inmates, and recently began holding Corsican nationalists transferred from jails on the French mainland.