Guns to hand after sighting of jailbreak killers

Residents of a small town in upstate New York were sleeping with loaded guns to hand last night as two convicted murderers who made an audacious escape from a nearby prison remained at large.

The school and shops in Willsboro, 40 kilometres from the Canadian border, remained open. But in the rural town where people don’t normally lock their houses or cars, many shut themselves indoors after Richard Matt and David Sweat were said to have been seen in the neighbourhood.

State troopers and police officers armed with assault rifles went from house to house in the area, checking farm buildings and sweeping the nearby forest from the ground and the air in the hope of flushing out the two men.

Meanwhile, a female member of staff at the prison from which the men broke out, Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, 64km from Willsboro, was being questioned about whether she helped them escape from the maximum security wing. The worker, Joyce Mitchell, was reported to have agreed to pick the two inmates up after they escaped through holes cut in walls and pipes at the weekend, but lost her nerve at the last minute.

Mitchell has not been charged with a crime and her son, Tobey Mitchell, strongly denied that she was involved in the prison break. ‘‘She is not the kind of person that’s going to risk her life or other people’s lives to let these guys escape from prison,’’ he said. The two men were said to have been seen walking near the centre of Willsboro on Wednesday, during a heavy rainstorm, before fleeing across a field when a motorist approached.

‘‘Everyone in this town probably has a gun and now they probably have it loaded,’’ said army veteran Ron Hamel, 54. ‘‘I can’t run because I’ve had knee surgery, but I’ve got a baseball bat and I can swing.’’

He said many residents think the inmates are much further away, in Mexico or Canada, unless arrangements for their getaway had fallen through.

‘‘I went out to check my barn. People are wondering why on earth they would come to Willsboro, there’s nothing here. People are very much on the alert, but there are some jokes, too – my wife told me to lock the doors and I said ‘How will I get the $100,000 reward if we do that’?’’

The search is also continuing in the area around Dannemora. Law enforcement officers trudge through a swamp while searching near Willsboro, New York, for two convicted murderers who broke out of a maximum security prison.