Criminals fled the holding cell through the toilet

Two suspects used a funny way for escaping from a holding cell in the Russian town of Kirishi near Saint Petersburg. Their road to freedom started in the toilet. Their disappearance was reported to prison authorities today about 4am.

The men broke off a toilet bowl in their ground-floor cell and sneaked into the basement through the hole. Then they climbed from the basement and ran away. But the police busted the fugitives a few hours later and put them back into custody.

The media reports on the remaining details of the incident vary. Regnum information agency reports that the suspects were involved in a car theft. Meanwhile, Fontanka.ru publishes a "service record" of the fugitives. One of them is under investigation on charges of armed robbery, the other one allegedly committed a series of crimes including a car theft, robbery and manslaughter. Now the prosecutors will bring fresh charges against the suspects.

Tall and impregnable as they may seem, the prison walls sometimes fail to stop the inmates from fleeing. Ikram Narbutaev, a rapist, escaped from the notorious Moscow prison Matrosskaya Tishina this February. Alexander Ershov, a drug trafficker, managed to make a hole in the brickwork and jumped over the wall last year. Neglectful prison wardens are to blame in many cases like that.

At times convicts do not have to resort to elaborate plans to make a clean getaway. Replacing IDs at the right time will do. Last September 17-year-old James McCormick (sentenced to 15 years in jail for murder) vanished into the fresh air shortly after he was summoned to court for another case. When his interrogation was over, the convict wrested ID away from a suspect who was about to be released on bail. The guards were careless enough to escort the dangerous criminal to the court's door and released him.