Ministry reveals new details of Hollywood-style prison escape in Duisburg

Prisoners alerted staff to the escape from Duisburg-Hamborn by shouting from the building. The commotion initially sounded like a fight, but officers soon discovered that a 35-year-old remand prisoner had vanished.

The North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Ministry said staff heard an “extraordinarily loud noise” at about 3:20 a.m. on Sunday. Several inmates were calling from a window that “the Serb had made it.” When officers tried to open the prisoner’s cell, a cupboard blocked the entrance.

The cell was empty, with the curtain drawn across the window. Behind it, officers found a grille bar that had been cleanly cut out. The ministry said it was unclear what tool the prisoner used, and none was found at the scene. He may have taken it with him.

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an extraordinarily loud noise

The opening measured only 27 centimetres wide and 35.5 centimetres high. The prisoner pushed aside the fine mesh in front of it and used two table legs to climb out. He apparently pulled himself up using the grille of the cell above before reaching the roof.

Investigators believe he may have used a rainpipe to descend from the four-storey building to the street. He remained at large on Monday afternoon.

The escape marked North Rhine-Westphalia’s first traditional escape from a closed prison in more than five years. The last such case occurred on June 2, 2021, at Bielefeld-Brackwede prison. The state parliament in Düsseldorf is due to discuss the incident next week, after several recent cases involving the prison system.

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the Serb had made it