Norwegian police think a young inmate at Norway’s Bastøy Prison, located on an island off Horten south of Oslo, escaped during the night by paddling a surfboard with a spade over to the mainland.

The convict, a 23-year-old man serving time for rape and narcotics violations, was last seen Tuesday evening and was missing early Wednesday morning. When he wasn’t found anywhere on the small island, which is dominated by the prison, police were alerted nationwide.

“We have found a surfboard and a spade that can be linked to Bastøy in the area around a school in Horten,” Åshild Jahre of the police in Horten told state broadcaster NRK. “So that’s how we think he came over (the Oslo Fjord).”

The 23-year-old is not from the local county of Vestfold, and police districts where he got in trouble have been alerted to his prison break. They claimed he was not considered dangerous, despite the rape conviction, and he was not identified.

Bastøy is considered a low-security prison that also often houses those convicted of white-collar crimes. The prison consists of around 80 buildings, many dating back to the early 1900s, and it functions as its own local community with a store, library, health services, church, school and welfare office. The island also features a recreational area, a pier with ferry service to Horten and an old lighthouse that can be rented out for meetings and seminars.

newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund