More than 200 Britons evaporated overnight from Sunday to Monday while in quarantine in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.
They had to stay ten days in their hotel room to be sure they were not carriers of the new strain of the coronavirus.
Some would have taken the direction of France.
It is probably not worth an escape from Alcatraz with a teaspoon but still: nearly 200 British tourists left Switzerland, on the night of Sunday to Monday, while they were in Covid-19 quarantine, according to the media of that country.
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Behind them, they leave not cells but hotel rooms of 20m2 in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.
They were placed in quarantine for ten days to ensure that these tourists from the United Kingdom did not carry the new strain of the coronavirus.
Much too long for some of them, who decided to leave the place.
According to the municipality, on the first day of isolation, about fifty Britons flew overnight.
"We didn't have the means to hold them back"
Hotel employees discovered their departure on Monday morning, finding the meal trays left in front of their rooms, intact.
"We did not have the means to retain them," explains Simon Vigette, director of the Verbier tourist office.
"The control is essentially done by the cantonal authorities who can mandate the communal authorities. But it is not something systematic. We are not going to knock on all the doors of all the chalets".
And according to the spokesperson for the town, some would have left for France.
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Of the 200 tourists who left Switzerland, not all left like thieves.
Some had completed all the administrative procedures, others went after their ten days of quarantine.
This is what the Verbier tourist office insists, which above all does not want to offend the British.
They represent more than a fifth of the clientele of this ski resort.