ATTLEBORO - The search for an escaped prisoner from Rhode Island on Sunday had echoes of the movie "The Fugitive." The man is linked to a 2015 gun-theft case in Worcester.

Massachusetts State police said James W. Morales stole a car from the Burger King parking lot at 520 Washington St. (Route 1) in Attleboro on Saturday night. Sunday morning the escapee's blood-stained prison clothing was found near a Route 95 overpass in Attleboro, police said.

Late Sunday, state police said the stolen vehicle had been recovered, but that Mr. Morales remained on the run.

Mr. Morales, 35, a former Army reservist charged with stealing 16 guns from an armory in Worcester in 2015, escaped from a Rhode Island detention center Saturday night.

He was discovered missing from the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls at 10:30 p.m.

U.S. Marshal Jamie Hainsworth said the Cambridge native scaled a building and climbed over a razor wire to escape. He added that officials believe Mr. Morales is wounded and bleeding from the razor wire.

Mr. Hainsworth told the Providence Journal Sunday the prisoner's escape on New Year's Eve went unnoticed for several hours.

Mr. Morales was last seen in the prison's recreation yard in late afternoon, and somehow managed to escape by jumping from rooftop to rooftop and crawling through razor wire until he got away, the marshal told the Journal.

He was gone by 7 p.m. and jail officials did not realize he was missing until bed checks at 10:30 p.m., Mr. Hainsworth said. The U.S. Marshal's Office was notified an hour later, he said.

In a Facebook posting on Sunday, Wrentham police said Mr. Morales was believed to be in Massachusetts and is considered dangerous.

The manhunt was being conducted by U.S. Marshals and Massachusetts State Police as well as other agencies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

A Massachusetts State Police K-9 patrol picked up Mr. Morales' track in Attleboro early Sunday morning and followed it under a Route 95 overpass near the Rhode Island line. The track ended there, where police found what appeared to be discarded prison clothing with blood on it.

The track ended because the escaped prisoner was no longer on foot, apparently having entered a car at that point, state police said.

Attleboro is eight miles from the Central Falls detention center along Route 95. The parking lot on Route 1 in Attleboro where the car was reported stolen is one mile from Interstate 95.

The stolen car was a green Chevy Lumina.

Mr. Morales is described as a 6-foot-1-inch, 180-pound African-American with brown eyes and black hair. It is believed he suffered cuts during his escape. He has an eagle tattoo on the left side of his neck and was bald at the time of his escape, police said.

Mr. Morales has been held since November 2015 at the Wyatt Detention Center, a quasi-public prison facility that is privately operated. The prison is described on its website as a maximum security facility housing up to 770 detainees, in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in New England as well as the U.S. Navy and Mashantucket Pequot Tribe.

Mr. Morales was trained as a medical logistics specialist and served at the 405th Combat Support Hospital at 25 North Lake Ave., in Worcester, where the Reserve Center is located, from April 2010 until he was discharged in November 2013.

The FBI says Mr. Morales stole six assault rifles and 10 handguns from the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center in Worcester in 2015.

He also faces unrelated child rape and indecent assault charges in Massachusetts.

Mr. Morales was out on bail on the rape and assault charges when he committed the theft at the Worcester armory, prosecutors say. His electronic monitoring bracelet was found at the armory scene.

He used to live in Cambridge and has connections to the Framingham area as well as to New York City.

Authorities urge anyone who spots the suspect to call 911.

Last month, two other people charged in connection with the armory theft pleaded guilty.

Tyrone James and Ashley Bigsbee, a couple accused of helping sell the stolen weapons, are to be sentenced in U.S District in Worcester in mid-March.

Mr. Morales has a status conference scheduled Friday in U.S. District Court in Worcester. He has a trial date for February but prosecutors in November indicated a plea deal was in the works.

- Material from the The Providence Journal was used in this report.