TWO CONVICTED MURDERERS are on the run after escaping from a maximum security prison in New York.

David Sweat (left) and Richard Matt (right)

The men are the first to escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in 150 years.

The two, Richard Matt (48) and David Sweat (34), who were in adjoining cells, used power tools to cut through steel pipes early on Saturday morning. They escaped through a manhole, leaving a taunting note which said ‘Have a nice day’.

The note left in the cell Source: Governor Andrew Cuomo via Flickr

They fooled prison guards by making makeshift dummies made out of jumpers to give the illusion that they were still in bed to anyone who passed by their cells.

A major manhunt is under way to find the two, who have been described as ‘dangerous individuals’ by the governor of New York Andrew Cuomo. Members of the public have been warned not to approach them.

The escape tunnel from the cell Source: Governor Andrew Cuomo via Flickr

Matt had been jailed for 25 years for kidnapping and then beating a man to death in 1997. Sweat killed a sheriff’s deputy and was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Cuomo described the escape as an ‘elaborate plot’.

“We went back and pieced together what they did,” he said. “It was elaborate. It was sophisticated. It encompassed drilling through steel walls and steel pipes”.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the area behind the cell Source: Governor Andrew Cuomo via Flickr

This facility opened in 1865 so this was quite an unusual occurrence.

The two managed to drill out of their cells and made it past the prison’s 30-foot-tall walls.

The escape was discovered when their cells were found to be empty during a morning check. A hole in the back of one of the cells was discovered shortly afterwards.

Part of the escape tunnel Source: governorandrewcuomo

Officials said that the two got out of the cell and onto a platform which was about six stories high. They climbed down and used the power tools to get out of the facility by cutting out a tunnel which connected to a manhole.

Source: governorandrewcuomo

An investigation is under way into how the prisoners got access to power tools.

“We have more questions than we have answers, but over the coming days and weeks, I’m sure that we’ll have more,” Cuomo told reporters.

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