(CNN) -- Arizona authorities are hunting for three convicted murderers who may well be out of state or on their way to Mexico, a corrections official said Saturday.
The Arizona Department of Corrections and the Flagstaff police said on Saturday that the three disappeared from a medium-security facility near Kingman and are considered to be armed and dangerous.
State and local authorities are searching for the men, who were discovered missing after the 9 p.m. count Friday at the privately-operated facility. The escapees cut a hole in the fence, authorities said. All three were serving time on murder convictions.
Flagstaff police said the suspects abducted two people in Kingman at gunpoint and then released them at a truck stop in Flagstaff.
Authorities were working late Saturday with federal and state agencies to find the men.
CNN
