Kandal provincial police are on the hunt for a theft suspect who escaped from prison on Wednesday.

Kandal provincial prison director Chat Sineang said on Thursday that Mat Tress was arrested on August 20 in Mok Kampoul district for stealing phones and had been held for eight days before the jailbreak.

“We unlocked him, let him do some exercise and take a bath as usual. Then he escaped by jumping off the barbed-wire prison wall,” he said.

He said a prison guard rang the alarm bell when the inmate climbed the wall, but once he and the other guards gave chase, Tress ran into a health centre and vanished into the nearby bush.

Sineang said he had informed the provincial court prosecutor and was seeking help from provincial police in the manhunt.

“He’s a burglar, having broken into other people’s houses to steal valuable belongings. That’s why he seemed to be so skilful, climbing the wall with ease,” he said.

The jailbreak, Sineang said, was the first such incident since he took up the position of prison director several years ago.

Nouth Savna, the spokesperson for the General Department of Prisons under the Ministry of Interior, told The Post on Thursday that his department was working on the case.

“To prevent such an incident from happening in future, we will take measures after investigating this case,” he said without elaborating.