Gilles Meloche. (Handout)

MONTREAL - For the second time in less than a week a prisoner -- this time a murderer -- has escaped from the same minimum-security prison just north of Montreal.

A prisoner also escaped from another federal penitentiary in Quebec at the end of September.

Employees at the Montee St-Francois federal prison in Laval, Que., first noticed Gilles Meloche, 56, missing on Sunday around 10 p.m.

Meloche was serving time for a slew of convictions, including first-degree murder, forcible confinement and armed robbery. He had been in prison since Sept. 13, 1980.

Correctional Service Canada has been forced to open two investigations into inmate escapes at Montee St-Francois in the last seven days.

Philippe Pelletier, 32, escaped from the same prison last Wednesday. Pelletier was serving six years for several offences including robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Montee St-Francois opened in the middle of the 1960s and according to Correctional Service Canada, the prison can house 243 inmates.

A 27-year-old inmate escaped from another federal penitentiary in Quebec on Sept. 29.

Alex Michaud-Robitaille, 27, had been serving time at Quebec's minimum-security Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines federal prison, about 45 km north of Montreal. He received a two-year sentence in April for possessing property obtained by crime, drunk driving and other convictions.

He was picked up last Thursday.

QMI Agency was unable to reach Correctional Service Canada for comment on Monday.