Spectacular escape from Duisburg prison: Serbian inmate cuts through bars and flees via roof

An action movie scenario unfolded in a German prison, where a 35-year-old man carried out a dangerous escape at midnight. He first cut through the metal bars of the cell window and then climbed up the building’s facade to the roof to get away.

Authorities reported that the incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning. The detainee was in a cell on the third floor; to reach the roof above the fourth floor, he used a cutting tool to sever one of the window bars overlooking the inner courtyard and then pried it open.

Using the cell table as a lever, he managed to break through the inner protective grille, creating an opening wide enough to squeeze his body through. He then climbed in an unknown manner up the outer prison wall to the upper terrace. From there, he descended to the outdoor area and vanished without a trace. During a subsequent search of his cell, guards discovered a secret compartment under the floor where he had hidden his escape equipment.

Law enforcement has launched a search for him, releasing his identifying details: height about 1.75 meters, slim build, and a tattoo of a woman’s face on his right arm. The suspect, of Serbian origin, had been in pre-trial detention since February 10 on robbery charges. At the end of May, a court sentenced him to six years in prison for two thefts that caused large financial losses, but the verdict is not yet final.

Just days earlier, another escape had shaken Germany’s prison system, as reported by public broadcaster WDR. The notorious fraudster Hendrik Holt, 36, absconded from an open institution in Berlin. He had been sentenced to eight years in prison after selling fake wind farms to foreign investors through his family company, pocketing millions of euros over many years.

Holt, who was arrested in April 2020 at Berlin’s luxury Adlon Hotel, enjoyed a semi-open prison status and was required to return to prison daily. Instead, he posted on Instagram shortly before the Duisburg escape, claiming to be in Russia. The message came with the words: “Greetings from Moscow. It’s very nice here — the caviar is fantastic.”

However, German media note that it has not yet been verified whether Holt is actually in the Russian capital, and it remains unclear if he escaped alone or traveled to meet his wife and daughter.