The net yesterday appeared to be closing on two killers who escaped a maximum- security New York jail two weeks ago.

A woman said to have helped two murderers escape from a maximum-security prison by giving them hacksaw blades, chisels, and other tools has made another court appearance as a manhunt in New York state continues.

The two killers who cut their way out of a maximum-security US prison apparently used tools stored there by contractors before returning them to their toolboxes after each night’s work, a prosecutor said.

Residents in rural New York, unaccustomed to locking their doors, day or night, were on edge as the manhunt for two killers who cut themselves free from a maximum-security prison with power tools stretched into a ninth day yesterday.

A worker at a maximum security prison in New York state has been charged with helping two killers escape.

A female prison worker being questioned by police, who are hunting two escapees from an upstate New York prison, thought she had a romantic relationship with one of them and had planned to drive the getaway car, NBC News reported.

Authorities searching for two escaped killers who have been on the loose for the better part of a week have admitted they remain in the dark about the pair’s whereabouts.

Investigators are looking into whether civilian employees or private contractors helped two killers obtain the power tools they used to break out of a maximum- security state prison near the Canadian border, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Two convicted murderers have 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 has said.