JAKARTA • An Indonesian child- murderer has escaped from jail by putting on a woman's Muslim veil, make-up and sunglasses and walking out past unsuspecting guards, an official said yesterday.

Anwar bin Kim An, who raped and murdered a schoolgirl, made the breakout from a Jakarta prison by changing into a woman's outfit allegedly smuggled in by his wife when she visited him during the Hari Raya holiday.

"The wife gave him the woman's clothing and he just changed his clothes in the meeting room where all the inmates meet with their families," said Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono. "He put on some lipstick and later walked away as a woman accompanied by his wife and their two children."

Prison CCTV footage obtained by local media shows the convict, in his 20s, walking out of the Salemba prison in central Jakarta dressed as a woman and wearing sunglasses while holding one of his children.

Mr Setiyono said Anwar managed to quietly change in the jail's visitors' room as it was crowded and there were just a few guards.

The breakout took place last Thursday. Mr Setiyono admitted there were no security checks for female visitors at the jail, unlike for male visitors.

Police have launched a hunt for Anwar, who had been sentenced to life in jail but had been behind bars for just four months.

His wife has been interrogated on suspicion of helping her husband to escape but she has not been detained as she has two children to look after, the spokesman said.

Anwar was convicted of the rape and murder last October of the schoolgirl, who was reportedly 12 years old.

Breakouts are common in Indonesia's prisons, which are overcrowded and poorly guarded.

And it is not the first time that a male inmate has disguised himself as a woman to sneak out of prison. In 2012, a terror convict escaped from a high-security jail by wearing a full-length Muslim burqa.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE