Two men are on the run from a prison south of Paris after giving guards the slip during an excursion in a forest, according to French police and prosecutors said.
Claiming an urgent need to relieve themselves during the run with other prisoners and guards in the Fontainebleau forest, the two men never returned, sources said.
Prosecutors said police in nearby Evry are investigating the escape of the men, who were being held at Fleury-Merogis prison - Europe's largest - in the Essonne department.
"Every resource has been deployed" to recapture them, they added.
Neither the length of their sentences nor what they were convicted of is immediately clear.
Fleury-Merogis saw another escape in June, when an inmate used a cradle installed for building work to escape via the roof.
On 1 August, the overcrowded prison held 3,922 people including women and minors, an occupancy rate of 137.5%, according to justice ministry figures.
In 2018, a prisoner escaped from a French prison in a helicopter with the help of an armed gang.
He was arrested by police after a three-month hunt.
