France detainee escapes during museum outing

A detainee this week took advantage of a trip to a Paris museum to escape, a French prosecutor's office said Friday, adding it had objected to him taking part in the first place.

The 28-year-old, who had been placed in detention for violence, managed to run off at the busy Gare du Nord train and metro station on Wednesday during a day out to visit the Musee de l'Homme anthropological museum in Paris, it said.

It was not immediately clear when he had been originally arrested or what he was doing at the train station.

Prison guard union FO Justice said he had been on his way back to his detention centre in the Paris suburb of Villepinte at the time.

He and five other inmates had been accompanied by five probation officers and a detention centre guard, who ran after the fugitive but failed to catch him, it said.

The man is still on the run.