KEY POINTS:
Two violent prisoners - one a convicted murderer - who escaped from custody in Hamilton on Thursday are still on the run, police said this morning.
Shaun Christopher Staples, 30, and John Mangaroa Poaka, 33, both escaped from a residential programme at Montgomery House in Anglesea St, Hamilton, at 5.30am on Thursday.
Staples is serving a life sentence for a 1995 murder, and Poaka is serving an eight-year term for aggravated robbery in 2001.
Police said the men were both from Hastings and had connections with the Mongrel Mob.
They were considered dangerous and should not be approached by members of the public.
Police spokesman Andrew McAlley said Montgomery House was a type of half-way house for criminals who were coming to the end of their prison term.
The house was not a prison, as it was not fenced or guarded.
Both the men would have been on a curfew and attending a variety of rehabilitative classes.
The Corrections Department said the prisoners were "minimum security".
- NZPA
