This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Two convicted murderers used power tools to cut through steel pipes at a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border and escape through a manhole, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.

“It was an elaborate plot,” Cuomo said after joining law enforcement authorities to retrace the prisoners’ escape route from the Clinton Correctional Facility in the town of Dannemora in the Adirondacks.

New York prison break - how two murderers escaped Read more

Cuomo said Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, were “two dangerous individuals”.

Sweat is serving a sentence of life without parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a Broome County sheriff’s deputy in 2002. Matt is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the kidnapping and beating death of a man in 1997.

The two men’s adjoining cells were empty during a morning check, said Anthony Annuci, the acting state corrections commissioner.

“A search revealed that there was a hole cut out of the back of the cell through which these inmates escaped,” Annucci said. “They went on to a catwalk which is about six stories high. We estimate they climbed down and had power tools and were able to get out to this facility through tunnels, cutting away at several spots.”

Authorities said there were many questions including how the men acquired the tools. Annucci said prison authorities were checking to see if any power tools were missing from contractors at the prison.

Major Charles Guess of the state police said more than 200 officers from multiple agencies were searching for the inmates. The search included bloodhounds and aerial surveillance, he said.

Cuomo said the prison break was the first escape from the maximum-security portion of the prison since it was built in 1865.

The prison is about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Roadblocks were set up in the area, WIRY-AM reported.

Cuomo spoke after cancelling his scheduled attendance at the Belmont Stakes horse race, in which American Pharoah was due to attempt to complete the elusive Triple Crown.



Sweat is a 5ft 11in white male with brown hair and green eyes, weighing 165lbs, police said. He has tattoos on his left bicep and his right fingers.



Matt is a 6ft white male with black hair and hazel eyes, according to police. He weighs 210lbs 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.