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Society

Police offer cash reward for 2 prison escapees

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-25 10:17

HARBIN: Chinese police have offered a cash reward of up to 100,000 yuan ($14,706) for information leading to the capture of two convicts who fled a prison in the northeastern Heilongjiang province on Tuesday.

Sun Xingchen, 23, and Chen Congcong, 21, escaped from Liming Prison in the outer Dongli district in the provincial capital Harbin Tuesday morning, the city's public security bureau said in a statement Wednesday.

Police described the two runaways as men of average height, both speaking with a dialectal accent unique to northeast China. Nothing was said about how they escaped from the jail.

A source close to the prison authority said the two convicts escaped while they were clearing snow with other prisoners outside their cells. But this has not been confirmed by police.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the escapees had just begun their 10-year jail terms for robbery.

A bank clerk in downtown Harbin said he and his colleagues had been warned of the runaways Wednesday. "We were told to be careful at the morning briefing," he said. "They said the two escapees were jailed for bank robberies."

Residents from a community about 500 meters from the prison said policemen visited every house Tuesday.

"They told us to keep our doors and windows shut and not to let any strangers in," said a man who refused to be identified.