Convicts escape from Berlin prison through hole in wall

Berlin: The Berlin police on Thursday launched a search operation for four convicts who escaped from a local prison through a hole in the wall.

According to the city authorities, the four prisoners had been behaving normally in the morning at a Plotzensee prison workshop but escaped shortly after through a 30 by 120 centimetre (1x4 feet) hole made in the ventilation system.

Authorities did not specify what tools were used to create the gap nor whether they received outside help, Efe news reported.

Cut cables, construction material and clothes could be seen outside the hole in the prison's outer wall.

Police deployed a large contingent to try to find the escaped prisoners, whose identity was not made public.

Plotzensee prison is in a residential district in the west of Berlin and currently holds some 360 inmates.