Russian prison officers are still baffled as to how an inmate could have climbed over the outer wall of one of Moscow's largest and oldest pre-trial detention facilities.
A spokesman for Moscow prosecutors was unable to explain how such a daring escape could have taken place, saying that the 26 year-old Belarusian man "scaled" the outer prison wall, which was covered with razor wire.
"While being taken to a washing facility, the man pushed a prison guard out of the way, ran to the prison yard, scaled the prison wall and escaped," Vladimir Marchenko said.
Other sources suggest the man "jumped over" the fence.
"I know it's hard to believe, but the man jumped over the prison fence and the razor wire like a contestant at the Olympics," spokesman for Moscow's penitentiary department Sergei Tsygankov said.
The 26 year-old man, who is on the international wanted list for several thefts in Belarus, was detained in Moscow late last year. He was transferred to the prison's mental ward after a failed suicide attempt.
Butyrka is one of Russia's oldest penitentiary facilities. Though the modern building was constructed in 1879, the prison is mentioned in official documents which date back to the 17th century. Some of the prison's more famous inmates include revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
In 1908, U.S. stunt man Harry Houdini made a bet with Moscow authorities that he could escape from any prison in the Russian capital. He was restrained with shackles and locked in an iron box in the Butyrka prison, but somehow managed to escape in 28 minutes.
Three inmates escaped from Butyrka in September 2001 through a hole they had dug from their cell to the street. Two were caught soon after the jailbreak; the third was at large for 18 months.
Another inmate "simply walked out of the prison" a month after the incident in 2001, apparently after bribing several guards. He was caught and re-detained two months later.
MOSCOW, March 23 (RIA Novosti)
