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 The manhunt centered on the town of Friendship, located about 280
miles (450 km) southwest of the Clinton Correctional Facility in
Dannemora, near the Canadian border, where the escaped convicts were
serving life sentences for murder.
The search in Friendship was winding down by Sunday night, but
increased patrols will stay in the area, New York State Police
spokesman Beau Duffy told Reuters.
"We will continue to search this area until all leads have been
exhausted," New York State Police Major Michael Cerretto said on
Sunday.
"As we have in other areas of this state, we will search under every
rock, behind every tree and structure until we are confident that
area is secure."
State police received a call early Saturday afternoon from a witness
who spotted two men with descriptions similar to the escaped
convicts, Richard Matt and David Sweat, on a railroad line in
Friendship, Cerretto said.
 Police interviewed the witness at length and determined that the
witness was credible and the lead should be investigated, Cerretto
said, calling the sighting "unconfirmed."
About 300 law enforcement officers were searching the area, along
New York's so-called southern tier, near the border with
Pennsylvania, Cerretto said. That is double the number that state
police said were on the ground on Saturday.
A secure perimeter was established around the area of the sighting
and roadblocks were set up, Cerretto said at a brief press
conference. He made no mention of other sightings in the area.
The Buffalo News reported that a civilian told police that he
believed he had seen two men fitting the descriptions of the
convicts walking along a road in Friendship on Sunday morning.
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The newspaper did not disclose how it learned about the report, and
a spokesman for the New York State Police declined comment on it.
The reported sightings of Matt, 48, and Sweat, 35, follow the
suspension of corrections officer Gene Palmer at Clinton in
connection with the escape.
His lawyer, Andrew Brockway, said Palmer has cooperated with
investigators, who questioned him for 14 hours on Saturday.
"Any information he has that will aid in the capture of Matt and
Sweat will be given to law enforcement," Brockway told Reuters in an
email. "He looks forward to going back to work as soon as possible."
Joyce Mitchell, 51, a training supervisor in the prison tailor shop,
is charged with helping the inmates escape by giving them tools.
The two inmates cut through their cell walls and crawled through a
steam pipe before emerging from a manhole outside the prison,
authorities said. The pair was discovered missing during the morning
bed check on June 6.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago)
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