A man charged with double murder has escaped from a maximum security jail in Moscow - apparently by digging a hole in the ceiling of his cell with a spoon.

Oleg Topalov, 33, became only the fourth man in two decades to escape from the notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison after pulling himself through the hole onto the roof and climbing over a perimeter fence.

The only object he could have used to dig the hole was a spoon, a law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency.

Investigators have accused prison staff of a "dishonest or careless attitude to their work that was made use of by the prisoner Topalov."

A prison service spokesman told the RIA Novosti news agency Topalov "escaped through a hole in the cell ceiling that he had made and made his way onto the roof.

"From the roof he escaped over the main fence."

http://news.sky.com/story/1087797/moscow-man-burrows-out-of-jail-with-a-spoon