Is it Escape from Alcatraz or Monty Python’s Flying Circus? Both, probably.

Two hardened suspects on New Zealand's North Island try to make a break from a courthouse, still tied together by handcuffs. But before they can run across the street in Hastings, they are hit by pepper-spray - and that’s where their bolt for freedom goes horribly wrong.

Stumbling onwards, the hapless criminals appear to forget they are tied together - and run either side of a streetlamp.

They slam into each other, fall to the ground, and collapse in a heap.

The first prisoner, Regan Reti, 20, had just been jailed for more than two years after being convicted of assault. The other inmate, Tiranara White, 21, was in custody for allegedly stealing a car and violating parole.

“They fell over and they were sprayed with pepper spray. But they got up and ran out of the court onto the street, across the road to a car park,” Senior Sergeant, Dave Greig, explained.

“That’s where they met the pole - it was all over, rover.”

Police said Reti, who pleaded guilty to the charge, had a month added to his prison term. White did not enter a plea, and will remain in police custody while a psychiatric evaluation is carried out.

Naturally, the pair won’t be allowed to forget yesterday’s ludicrous escape attempt – because, in a good old fashioned dose of New Zealand humour, the whole episode was released to the public after being caught on CCTV .

The country’s TV One News has already billed it as “one of the worst escape attempts ever seen”.

Watch it for yourself - it really is as funny as it appears.

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