The New York Times:
In the latest in a chain of spectacular jailbreaks at French prisons, three inmates were freed today by accomplices who descended on a prison in central France in a helicopter, then used a buzz saw to rip through security netting to reach the men, two of whom were said to be drug dealers.
The jailbreak, at a high security prison at Luynes, near Aix-en-Provence, was the third major prison break in a month and the fifth this year. They have embarrassed the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which has put domestic security at the top of its legislative agenda, and are prompting the government to rethink security in French prisons, which are heavily overcrowded.