New York prison worker charged with helping fugitives

Hundreds of police officers are searching for two convicted murders

A New York state prison worker who police say provided tool parts to help two convicted murderers escape has been arrested.

Workshop instructor Joyce Mitchell, 51, is charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation.

Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped a week ago using power tools to cut through their cell walls at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

A massive manhunt is currently under way for the pair.

Prosecutors have told US media outlets that Mrs Mitchell gave Matt and Sweat hacksaw blades and drill bits, but did not provide the more powerful tools they used.

She also planned to be the pair's getaway driver but changed her mind at the last minute, investigators said.

Mrs Mitchell's family has said she would not have helped an escape.

5 June: David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora
6-7 June: Possible sighting of pair in Dannemora
9 June: Search focuses on Willsboro area after another possible sighting
10 June: Police close off Route 374 between Dannemora and Cadyville and search expands to neighbouring Vermont
11 June: Police dogs find food wrapper and footprint at suspected camp site near Dannemora
12 June: Investigators arrest Joyce Mitchell, a prison worker, charging her with providing tool parts used in the breakout

Prosecutor Andrew Wylie said that Mrs Mitchell faced up to eight years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Mr Wylie said more charges against Mrs Mitchell were possible.

Matt, 48, and Sweat, 34, cut through brick and steel to crawl through an underground pipe and emerge from a manhole outside the prison's 40ft walls.

The manhunt - involving hundreds of police officers searching stretching in New York state, Vermont and Canada - is now into its seventh day.

Bad weather has hampered the search, police say, but the men are also at a disadvantage if they have not found shelter.

"They've got to be cold, wet, tired and hungry," said Charles Guess, one of the investigators.