10:44am UK, Monday May 12, 2008

Red-faced prison bosses in New Zealand are hunting an inmate who escaped using a classic movie technique.

The rope dangling from prison tower

Aaron Stephen Forden climbed down a rope made of knotted together bed sheets which had been dangled from a jail tower.

By the time staff discovered the plot, the 26-year-old was long gone.

The sheets were spotted by a guard at Mount Eden prison in the country's second biggest city, Auckland.

Corrections Department manager Warren Cummins said the sheets were "tied together and he's used them to get away".

He added: "I don't think it's a joke at all. I think it's very serious and we'll want to have a look at how he managed that and ... do everything we can to stop it in future."

Forden apparently climbed down the prison tower within clear view of a guards' watch tower but under the cover of darkness.

The jail was built in 1856 and is officially listed as an historic site.