Police are searching for a Battambang man who escaped from the provincial prison yesterday morning.

The prisoner, 33-year-old Soum Vuthy, was convicted of robbery in February 2012, deputy provincial police chief Cheth Vanny said.

Vuthy escaped during a routine outing, during which prisoners are accompanied by guards, to take part in work-training schemes or carry out chores, he added. “Now we are looking for him because he may not have managed to get too far away from the prison yet,” Vanny said.

Villagers, however, have told police that they saw a man in prison uniform getting into a car outside a village pagoda, which sped off towards a different district.