French prisoner escapes in fellow inmate’s luggage

France's prison service said Saturday it had launched an investigation after a man escaped by smuggling himself into his cellmate's bag as he left jail, having served his sentence.

The 20-year-old prisoner escaped from Corbas prison, near Lyon, southeast France, on Friday, broadcaster BFMTV reported.

The inmate was serving several sentences, the prison service said in a statement to AFP.

He "took advantage of the liberation of his fellow inmate to hide himself in his luggage and get out", the statement said.

The escaped prisoner was also under investigation in a case linked to organised crime, a source close to the affair told AFP. An internal investigation is underway and Lyon prosecutors had opened their own investigations, the prison service added.

Last month, the Lyon Bar Association expressed alarm about overcrowding at the Lyon-Corbas prison.

As of 1 May 2025, around 1,200 people were detained in the prison, which has capacity for 678 places, BFMTV had reported.

Sebastien Cauwel, the director of the prison administration, told BFMTV yesterday that an "accumulation of errors" and "a series of serious malfunctions" led to the escape.