Reward offered in New York jail break 'crisis'

The escape of two murderers from a maximum security jail in New York has been described as a crisis situation by the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo.  

Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, used power tools to break out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. 

Mr Cuomo said these are dangerous men capable of committing grave crimes again.  

New York State is offering a ten thousand dollar reward for information.  

Mr Cuomo said the prison breakout is the first escape from the facility in 150 years. 

Reports say the two men cut through the steel back walls of their cell before clambering along a catwalk to reach a series of pipes and tunnels, which they again cut their way through. 

The pair then climbed up through a manhole into a nearby street, disappearing into the darkness some 20 miles south of Canada.

ALJAZEERA