Two major searches are under way after a reported sighting of two convicted killers who escaped from a prison in New York state.
Richard Matt and David Sweat went missing from the prison in Dannemora, near the Canadian border, on 6 June.
A search is taking place in the hamlet of Friendship, 300 miles (480km) to the south, near the border with Pennsylvania.
Officers are also looking at another site in a neighbouring county.
Police said they were responding to a sighting in Friendship of two men walking along a railway.
Reporters in Friendship said police were searching every vehicle along the Interstate 86 road, and were ordering all residents to stay indoors.
Much of the search appeared to centre on dense woodland, and was continuing well into the night.
Close to 150 police officers are carrying out the search.
Police said there had also been a sighting matching the men’s description a week ago in Steuben County, New York, which is next to Allegany County, where Friendship is located.
Another search is continuing in Steuben County, focusing on a building site in the town of Erwin.
Matt, 49, was convicted of the kidnap, torture and dismemberment of his former boss, whose body was found in pieces in a river.
Sweat, 35, was serving life for his part in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy who witnessed stolen guns being handled.
They cut through brick and steel at the Clinton Correctional Facility, before crawling through an underground pipe.
They then emerged from a manhole outside the prison’s 40-foot (12-metre) walls.
Matt, 49, was convicted of the kidnap, torture and dismemberment of his former boss, whose body was found in pieces in a river.
Sweat, 35, was serving life for his part in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy who witnessed stolen guns being handled.
They cut through brick and steel at the Clinton Correctional Facility, before crawling through an underground pipe.
They then emerged from a manhole outside the prison’s 40-foot (12-metre) walls.
Source:https://www.bbc.com
