Police in Alphen aan den Rijn are investigating an attempt to break out of the local prison – using bed sheets knotted together to climb over the wall.

The would-be escapee managed to get out of his cell by removing a window and bars but was spotted before he could use his makeshift rope to leave the prison grounds altogether, Dutch media reported.

He had thrown the rope from the roof of the jail over the wall, when the alarm sounded.

The man has now been placed in an isolation unit and no-one else in the prison was involved in the escape attempt, police said.

However, according to the AD, a second person was arrested outside the jail and there may have been a getaway car waiting nearby. That car has been confiscated by the police as part of the investigation.