According to prison officials, the 30-year-old and 37-year-old escapees made a cloth ladder by tying bed sheets together. They then waited until the early morning hours on Monday to climb onto the roof of the 108-year-old prison, which attaches directly to the protective fence around the prison grounds.

Despite the guards and barbed wire, the two men were able to use their makeshift knotted ladder to climb down 15 metres to get the roof of an adjacent parking garage and off into freedom.

Police on patrol were immediately alerted to the escape and the hunt began.

The older of the two was caught hiding under a truck by officers in the western part of the city on Sielstraße. The 30-year-old fled again and continues to be on the lam.

The fugitive is named Jan Jacek Grzywacz, stands at 180 centimetres tall and weighs 70 kilogrammes. He has short, dark blonde hair, is a smoker and has poor dental hygiene. Police believe that after being spotted by authorities, he ran into a black Audi sedan with Nuremberg plates.

Grzywacz is wanted for breaking and entering, as well as extradition to his native Poland.

This is the second time this year that prisoners have been able to escape the Nuremberg jail. In May, a 26-year-old managed to flee using a similar plan and a makeshift ladder to get down the same wall.