UPDATE: At around 1 p.m., Michael France was apprehended by Osceola County Sheriff's Office deputies in a wooded area near the Church of St. Luke and St. Peter at  2745 Canoe Creek Road.

Several schools that went on lock down today have been released.

By Juliana A. Torres
Staff Writer

Several St. Cloud schools were on lockdown Thursday while law enforcement looked for an escaped prisoner who was working on a ditch near 19th Street and Massachusetts Avenue in St. Cloud.

Michael S. France, a 21-year-old inmate with the Florida Department of Corrections, was with a work crew of 10 prisoners and two supervisors cleaning out a ditch at the end of Massachusetts Avenue when he escaped, Osceola County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Twiz Lizasuain said.

He was still at-large at press time Friday.

France asked to use the restroom and since there were no facilities in the area, the supervisors told him to use a wooded area for privacy, authorities stated. France did not return from the wooded area.

St. Cloud police received the call about his escape around 1:17 p.m. Both agencies searched for the fugitive, but did not find him Thursday night, releasing the perimeter at around 10 p.m.

“We are still actively looking for him,” Lizasuain said.

St. Cloud High School was the first school to go on lockdown, followed by Michigan Avenue, St. Cloud and Neptune elementary schools. St. Cloud and Neptune middle schools had released students prior to the lockdown, but after-school students were held.

All schools were released at around 4 p.m., school officials said.

France was incarcerated in a minimum security facility at the Central Florida Reception Center on Beeline Road, Orlando, which oversees work release programs in Orange and Osceola counties. He is serving a several year sentence for a number of convictions in Charlotte County, including grand theft of a motor vehicle and several burglaries.

According to state department records, France is a 6-foot, 152-pound white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He has several tattoos, including one of a fox on his neck and tribal tattoos on both shoulders. He was wearing a Department of Corrections blue uniform.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 407-348-2222 or anonymously through Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.