A Brazilian murderer died after suffocating in a 230ft-long escape tunnel he had dug from his prison cell toilet, it was reported.

Judson Cunha Evangelista, 26, had spent months carving the tunnel, and had managed to dig all the way past the perimeter wall of the jail in Boa Vista, northern Brazil.

However, shortly before he was able to dig himself out, he is believed to have suffered an acute lack of oxygen, and despite making it back to his cell, he died soon after.

Heavily-fortified

After his death, jail staff and police after the inmate, who was serving time for murder, managed to make it back to his cell after becoming ill inside the hole, but died soon after.

Shocked officers discovered a hole which began underneath the toilet in Evangelista's cell in Wing 7 of the Monte Cristo penitentiary, the largest prison in Brazil's northernmost state of Roraima.

The dirt tunnel continued for 230ft underneath the prison and had already passed under its heavily-fortified outer walls and electric fences, according to prison authorities.

Excavate

The tunnel is believed to have taken months to excavate and was reportedly just a few metres away from reaching the surface in surrounding forest outside.

Officers found several bags of dirts and an electric cable which ran the length of the tunnel, with a lightbulb on the end.

The state justice department, Sejuc, which is in charge of the prison, said 150 policemen took seven hours to locate the tunnel after prison officers were alerted to its existence following Evangelista's death.