An escapee from Wortel Prison in Hoogstraten (Antwerp province) was apprehended on Tuesday, the prison administration confirmed in the evening.
The 31-year-old man escaped from the prison sometime after 23:00 on Monday night, Het Laatste Nieuws reports, but was only noticed to be missing at 06:30 on Tuesday.
Following a search operation, police were able to track down the fugitive. The detainee was then placed in a remand home.
The prisoner managed to escape by tying several sheets and a television cable together, slipping out of a window and swimming across the moat. According to sources inside the prison, the man had been detained there for drug offences and was nicknamed 'Flakkaboy'.
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Wortel Prison is a semi-open institution. "This means they can work on their reintegration into society partly outside the prison walls," said Valérie Callebaut of the Prison Service. "It certainly doesn't happen often that prisoners escape from such a penal institution, but of course it can always happen."
Ten years ago, a prisoner also escaped in a similar way, using a rowing boat to cross the moat.
