Update at 4:56 p.m. ET Wednesday: The two inmates have been charged with murder, the Associated Press is reporting, providing details of the thwarted escape.

Eric Robert and Rodney Berget, both 48 and serving life-long sentences, were captured after attacking a 63-year-old guard working alone, covering his head in plastic shrink-wrap and using his uniform to sneak past a security gate. Robert donned Officer Ronald Johnson's uniform and Berget was inside one of two boxes on a cart, officials said.

After another guard became suspicious when Robert didn't swipe his electronic ID card, a melee ensued. Robert reached the razor wire of the outer gate before being apprehended. Berget was subdued while beating another guard.

Johnson died from suffocation.

Original post: A South Dakota prison guard was killed today and another officer was injured during an attempted breakout by two inmates.

The dead guard was identified as 63-year-old Ronald Johnson, who worked at the penitentiary in Sioux Falls for more than 23 years. The other guard, who was treated for minor injuries, was not identified.

Prison officials released no details about the late-morning escape attempt by Rodney Berget of Aberdeen, S.D., and Eric Robert of Piedmont, S.D., , both 48, who were captured on the prison grounds. Berget is serving life for attempted murder and kidnapping convictions, and Robert is serving an 80-year sentence for a kidnapping conviction, the American News says.

In May 1987, Berget and five other inmates escaped through a vent in the penitentiary's recreation building in the largest escape in state history at the time, the Argus Leader writes. They were captured two months later.