An inmate who allegedly threatened a maintenance worker into helping him and nine other men break out of a New Orleans jail had previously escaped from a detention center in North Louisiana, authorities said.

Ten inmates in all broke out of the New Orleans jail, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, which runs the facility.

A maintenance worker shut off water at the jail, allowing the inmates to remove a toilet and sink fixture from a cell wall, according to the Louisiana attorney general’s office.