US prison escape ‘had hallmark of movies’

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.

Cuomo said during a round of appearances on television news shows that he would be shocked if a prison guard was involved in the escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, 32km south of the border.

Officials said David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, cut through steel walls at the back of their adjacent cells and steel pipes in making the Shawshank Redemption-style breakout, which guards discovered early on Saturday. Sweat and Matt were still on the loose last night.