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[h=4]Cuomo: Prison escape like 'a plot from a movie'[/h]A massive manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officers, hounds, roadblocks and helicopters was underway Sunday after two convicted killers cut through steel pipes at a maximum-security prison in New
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A manhunt is underway for two men who escaped from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, near the Canadian border. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the convicted murderers he describes as "dangerous people." (June 7) AP
A composite image showing convicted murderers David Sweat , left, and Richard Matt, right, who escaped from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York on June 6, 2015.(Photo: New York State Police handout, EPA)
A massive manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officers, hounds, roadblocks and helicopters was underway Sunday after two convicted killers cut through steel pipes at a maximum-security prison in New York and escaped through a manhole.
"It could have been a plot from a movie," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday on ABC's Good Morning America.
Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, disappeared Friday night or Saturday morning from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. State Police said the men, who were in adjoining cells, were counted as present Friday night but were missing at a 5:30 a.m. bed check.
Cuomo said the men apparently placed stuffed clothes in their beds to avoid the detection of correctional officers who peer into the cells every two hours during the night.
The prison immediately went into lockdown. Cuomo, who visited the site Saturday, said it was the first escape from the maximum security section of the 150-year-old prison. He said the men used power tools to drill through steel walls and pipes.
Mystery surrounds how the men obtained the power tools and how their efforts went unheeded.
"I chatted with a couple of the inmates myself and said, 'You must be a very heavy sleeper,' " the governor said. "They were heard, they had to be heard."
Cuomo said several contractors have been working at the prison. Authorities are trying to determine if any of them are missing tools, he said.
Cuomo spokesman Gareth Rhodes tweeted a photo of a note the men left behind. "Have a nice day," it read.
"I'm sure they knew that since it was the first escape it was going to be a big deal," Cuomo said. "But we'll get them back and we'll give them the note back."
Anthony Annuci, the acting state corrections commissioner, said the men cut a hole out of the back of a cell. They exited onto a six-story catwalk, climbed down and used power tools to cut into tunnels. They slipped into the night from a manhole a block away from the prison.
Sweat was serving life without parole for killing a Broome County sheriff's deputy who had confronted him and others over a suspected burglary in 2002.
Steven Tarsia, brother of Deputy Kevin Tarsia, told the Associated Press that learning his brother's killer had escaped "turns your world upside-down all over again." Tarsia said he believed the men must have had outside conspirators aiding the escape, but added that "I don't know why anybody would help them."
Matt was serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for kidnapping, robbing and killing Niagara County businessman William Rickerson in 1997. Rickerson's son, William Jr., told NBC News, "I just hope they catch him."
Matt fled to Mexico in 1998 before he could be arrested, and there he stabbed a man outside a bar and was imprisoned for murder. Mexican authorities released him in 2007, and he was extradited to the United States. Matt was convicted by a Niagara County jury in 2008.
Matt has a history of escape, having broken out of the Erie County Jail in 1986 by scaling a fence. He was captured after four days, the Buffalo News reported in 2008.
Sweat is white, 5 feet 11 inches, with brown hair and green eyes and weighs 165 pounds, police said. He has tattoos on his left bicep and his right fingers.
Matt is white, 6 feet tall, with black hair and hazel eyes, according to police. He weighs 210 pounds and has tattoos including "Mexico Forever" on his back, a heart on his chest and left shoulder and a Marine Corps insignia on his right shoulder.
State Police warned the pair should be considered dangerous and should not be approached. Roadblocks were set up in the area.
In Canada, the escape prompted the Ontario Provincial Police force to issue an internal alert to its officers. Officers are patrolling with "heightened vigilance," Sgt. Peter Leon, the force's provincial media relations co-ordinator, told Canada's CTV.
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