State police in New York intensified their search Sunday for two prison escapees after receiving a tip from a witness who reported seeing two men fitting their description, according to dpa. The search focussed on an area more than 500 kilometres south-west of the maximum-security prison the two men broke out of on June 6. Police received the tip on Saturday from a woman who reported a possible sighting of the fugitives near the town of Friendship in western New York near the Pennsylvania border. The witness spotted the two men near a railroad line, said Major Michael Cerretto of the New York State Police. A perimeter has been set up, checkpoints and foot patrols have been increased and canine units have been sent into the area, he said. "We will continue to search [the area around Friendship] until all leads have been exhausted," Cerretto said at a news conference. Officials also announced a reward of 50,000 dollars leading the capture of one of the men and 100,000 dollars for both. Cerrotto warned the public not to approach them because they were considered dangerous. David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, using power tools to cut their way out of their cells and into an underground pipe that led to a manhole. A prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, 51, is accused of providing the men with equipment after she had developed a friendship with the pair, officials said. Sweat was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff's deputy, and Matt was sent to jail for 25 years-to-life for three counts of murder, three counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery.
