Larry Davis, who gained notoriety after wounding six New York police officers in a 1986 shootout, prompting a huge manhunt, has been stabbed to death in prison, according to US officials.

Davis was fatally wounded yesterday at about 7.30pm local time during a recreation break at Shawangunk jail, 80 miles north of New York City, according to a spokesman for the New York state prisons department.

Davis, 41, was stabbed repeatedly with a home-made metal blade in the arms, head, back, upper thigh and chest. Another inmate was being questioned over the killing, said spokesman Erik Kriss.

Davis had been serving 25 years to life for murder in a case unrelated to the police shootout.

The 1986 gun battle began after police had gone to an apartment to arrest Davis over the killing of five drug dealers. Davis escaped unhurt through a window, setting off a 17-day manhunt involving hundreds of officers.

He was eventually tracked to a housing project where one of his sisters lived.

At Davis's trial, his defence team accused police officers of trying to kill him because he had knowledge of police corruption, and said he had acted in self-defence.

A jury acquitted him of attempted murder and aggravated assault but he was convicted on weapons charges.

The gunfight and Davis's flight from the law made him a folk hero to some, and a symbol of outrage to others, especially police officers.

The Larry Davis Story, a documentary directed by Troy Reed, alleges that New York police were involved in narcotics trading in the 1980s, and claims that the shootout came after Davis backed out of a drug deal.