The 10 inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail in a stunning overnight escape last week used electric hair trimmers with multiple clipper blades to help cut their way through the cell walls, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

The Louisiana authorities are still searching for five of the 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center last week.

The recent jailbreak in New Orleans followed decades of dysfunction in the city's jail system and recent warnings that conditions were ripe for catastrophe.