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Belgium: Detainee escapes jail after ripping out toilet

August 3, 2022

Just hours after his arrest, a 25-year-old man broke a toilet in a jail in Brussels and escaped through a hole in the wall, according to the police.

https://p.dw.com/p/4F2Xr
The police station in the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean area in Brussels
The escapee had been detained in a police station in the Molenbeek area in the Belgian capitalImage: Thierry Roge/BELGA_INTERNAL/dpa/picture alliance

Brussels police on Tuesday said a 25-year-old man escaped a detention cell after ripping out its toilet. 

The escapee "unhooked the toilet from the wall" and slipped out "through a hole no larger than an A4 sheet of paper," a police spokesman told the AFP news agency.

From that hole, he landed into an underground corridor, where he climbed out of a window onto the street, the spokesman added. 

According to Belgian broadcaster VRT, police said security cameras at the detention cell were not working at the time of the incident. 

Few hours in jail

The man was previously convicted over assaults on law enforcement and drug-related charges.

He was wanted by the West Flanders prosecutor's office. 

The case against him is over failure to comply with a police order, AFP reported, citing a spokesman for the prosecution in the Flemish city of Courtrai. 

Police arrested the 25-year-old late on Monday for violating his parole in the ongoing case and held him in the police station in Brussels' Molenbeek neighborhood. 

He broke out of jail just hours later, police said. 

fb/rs (AFP, credited media reports)