Two prisoners escaped from a French jail using bed sheets after sawing through the bars of their cell, a prosecutor said Thursday.

France has some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe, and staff unions have complained the state is neglecting normal jails as it moves narco criminals into new supermax prisons.

Guards noticed that the two men had escaped from the jail in the eastern city of Dijon shortly before dawn, the prisons authority said.

The pair "seem to have sawn through bars" and "fled using bed sheets", Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch said, without providing further details on how exactly they used the bedding.

The fugitives included a 19-year-old man held in pre-trial detention for attempted murder, he said.

The other, a 32-year-old man detained over threats and viol

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