Overview
- Authorities say the 41-year-old fugitive sawed through cell bars overnight and lowered himself with knotted sheets before disappearing from the maximum-security facility.
- The Prefecture of Milan has activated a regionwide search across Lombardy with patrols, checkpoints, roadblocks, sweeps of fields and industrial areas, and internal border controls.
- Guards discovered the escape at the morning headcount around 8 a.m., and investigators are reviewing surveillance footage to pinpoint timing and movements.
- Officials are examining whether he had outside help to breach the perimeter, as the prison police’s Central Investigative Unit joins the operation.
- Union leaders cite chronic strain on the system, noting Opera houses 1,338 inmates in 918 places with 533 agents versus roughly 811 needed, alongside nationwide overcrowding and staffing gaps.