Three prisoners used a table leg to pierce a hole in the roof of their cell in a 14th-century French penitentiary and escape in the early hours of New Year's Day, a local official said Wednesday.

The three climbed onto the roof of the Colmar prison in eastern France and from there entered an adjoining courthouse, where they fled through a side door. The escape highlighted overcrowding and the advanced state of disrepair of an institution originally built in 1316 as a convent, according to prosecutor Bernard Lebeau.

The prisoners, aged 19 to 24, had been jailed on charges of assault and vandalism. Two were detained awaiting trial while the third was serving a two-year term.

Reuters