A convict has escaped from a Belgian prison after walking out of the main door of a jail that had been left open.
Christian Lefevre, 39, could not believe his luck when he saw the open door at the prison in the city of Namur, the capital of the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium.
The convict had been out on cleaning duties in the prison’s entrance area but when he saw the open door and seemingly could not resist the temptation.
Lefevre simply walked through the door and kept going without any prison guards noticing until it was too late.
He has now been missing for more than 48 hours and the Belgian Federal Judicial Police has launched a search for him.
Local prosecutors, who are investigating the escape, said the prisoner had been cleaning the entrance hall without direct supervision.
Charlotte Fosseur, spokeswoman for the Namur-Dinant prosecutor’s office, said: “Sometimes the prison door is opened for outdoor work.”
Officials tried to also suggest Lefevre may have slipped out when the door was opened to admit a visitor.
Mathilde Frerotte, the deputy regional director of penitentiary institutions, said her information was that Lefevre was being supervised at the time.
She said: “He was accompanied by an agent. The agent reacted, but he was too late.”
Ms Frerotte added that Lefevre had previously been put under extra surveillance after failing to return to the prison on time after leave.
She added: “But after that, he was granted an exit permission during which everything went well. The risk of escape was classed as limited.”
Lefevre was serving a five year sentence for robbery and was due to be released in September 2020.
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Story By: Anastasia Tsougka, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
