BREAKING: Shawshank jailbreak: Fugitive murderer David Sweat shot and captured

Escaped inmate David Sweat has been shot near the Canadian border, police have confirmed.

NBC News reported that the convicted murderer was wounded, but is alive, and was taken into custody just south of the Canadian border.

The New York Times reports that he was captured near the town of Constable, N.Y., after a confrontation with a police sergeant who saw the escapee walking down a road toward him. According to an eyewitness, the officer ordered Sweat to stop, but when he tried to flee, the sergeant fired his weapon.

One law enforcement source said that Sweat was being taken to Alice Hyde Medical Centre in Malone. His condition was not immediately clear. A law enforcement official told Buffalo News that Sweat was bleeding badly and had suffered 'life-threatening wounds' before being taken to the hospital for surgery.

The news comes just one day after his accomplice Richard Matt (49) was shot by police in Malone. Matt, was gunned down near a cabin in Duane after opening fire on a campervan. No-one was injured. Police traced him back to a cabin where they smelled gunsmoke, then heard someone coughing outside. Matt was warned to surrender, failed and was killed. A 20-gauge shotgun was found nearby.

Officials revealed on Sunday (28 June) that Matt was shot three times in the head. A post mortem revealed he had insect bites on his legs, as well as blisters and minor bruises that would be expected for someone who had been living in the woods.

The pair have been on the run for more than three weeks after they broke free from Clinton Correctional Facility 20 miles (32km) from the Canadian border on 6 June, after drilling through the steel walls of the prison.

Matt, was serving 25 years to life for three counts of murder, kidnapping and robbery for the torture and dismemberment of his former boss in 1997. Sweat was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of a sheriff's deputy in 2002.

More than 1,300 law enforcement officers were combing Malone and Duane on Sunday (28 June).

More follows...