(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Officials say a man trying to flee from a Philadelphia prison halfway house by hiding in a dumpster had to be freed from a trash truck.

WCAU-TV reports it took firefighters almost two hours to remove the bags of trash and free the man from the truck’s compactor section Monday morning.

Officials at The Kintock Group house say the 33-year-old man hid in the bin outside the facility. It was emptied into truck around 5:30 a.m.

He was taken to Temple University Hospital with lower abdominal, hip and leg injuries. He is listed in critical condition.

The halfway house serves as an interim stop before offenders re-enter the general population.

No one has yet said how authorities realized the man was inside the truck.

No other details were released.

(AP)