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Prison (symbolic photo)
Photo: WIN Initiative / Neleman / Getty Images
An unexpected find: During routine electrical work in the south of Paris, a technician came across a mysterious tunnel - near a prison. According to police sources, the corridor under construction will be around 450 meters from the prison. At the underground site in the capital there were also bags full of rubble and a bed.
Guillaume Durand, an employee at the town hall in Paris' 14th arrondissement, believes it is unlikely that the tunnel is part of a sophisticated prison escape route. "It is a four-meter-long tunnel in a dead-end street on Rue de la Santé, more than 500 meters from the prison," he said.
The police assume that the tunnel was intended to make the route to the world-famous catacombs of Paris easier and was dug by secret researchers, emphasized Durand. The authorities sent an engineer to the site to fill the hole.
The catacombs are now one of the most popular attractions in Paris, attracting around half a million visitors every year. In part of the former underground quarries, located around 20 meters below the French capital, the remains of six million Parisians were piled up in the 18th and 19th centuries.
spr/AFP