Incredible CCTV shows how a Russian prisoner slithers free from jail cell

A Russian prisoner’s incredible escape from a jail cell has been captured by security surveillance.

Footage believed to have been recorded on Saturday shows the accused robber, Rustam Shakhrutdinov, 25, squeezing his lean body through a tiny food hatch.

His waist becomes stuck for a moment, and the shirtless man almost loses his underpants during the stunt.

But it only takes minutes for the inmate, who local media have called “snake man”, to contort his way to freedom.

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The rest of his clothes are waiting for him on the other side of the door, where he puts them on and casually walks away from the cell inside the prison in Izberbash, in the Republic of Dagestan, in southwest Russia.

The unbelievable feat has been compared to an early X-Files episode Squeeze, where a series of ritualistic killings were performed by somebody capable of squeezing their body through impossibly narrow gaps.

It is not yet known if police caught him before Shakhrutdinov managed to escape the prison grounds.