To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
This is the moment an inmate was found wedged in a hole during a bungled escape attempt in Brazil.
Prisoner Alan Leandro da Silva, 32, spent two days using a broomstick handle and a nail to dig the opening in his cell at Rio Branco Penitentiary.
Thinking the hole was wide enough, he tried to slip through while the guards were distracted, only to find himself lodged firmly in the concrete.
Wardens foiled the attempted prison break after seeing ‘strange movement’ in the cell on June 16.
They called firefighters to help free da Silva, whose upper body had started to strain from dangling over the floor.
Footage shows the convict leaning on a blue chair as rescuers drill through the concrete around his torso.
Officers completed the painstaking extraction and freed da Silva unharmed.
A fire department spokesman said: ‘According to the inmate’s own account, the hole was dug for two days using a nail and a broomstick.
‘However, during the escape attempt, he was trapped inside the opening. In view of the situation, the Criminal Police called the Fire Department to carry out the rescue.
‘After thorough work, the rescue team was able to successfully release the victim, who was safely handed over to the Criminal Police team that was already on standby at the scene.’
The man was given first aid before being hauled back into his cell, but it’s unclear how he got the tools to make his escape attempt possible.
In 2018, a prisoner suffocated to death just metres from escaping after digging a 70-metre-long tunnel from his cell toilet to freedom.
Judson Cunha Evangelista, 26, suffered from a lack of oxygen as he carved the tunnel, which had already passed under the perimeter wall of the maximum security jail in Boa Vista, northern Brazil.
The escape route was discovered by police after the inmate, who was serving time for murder, managed to make it back to his cell after becoming ill inside the hole, but he died soon after.
Shocked officers discovered a hole which began underneath the toilet in Evangelista’s cell in Wing 7 of the Monte Cristo penitentiary, the largest prison in Brazil’s northernmost state of Roraima.
The dirt tunnel continued for 70 metres underneath the prison and had already passed under its heavily-fortified outer walls and electric fences, according to prison authorities.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.