Chicago Inmates Escape ... From 17 Floors Up

Cops in Chicago are hunting two bank robbers who pulled off a daring escape from one of the world's only high-rise prisons yesterday morning. Cellmates Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley are believed to have squeezed through a narrow window and scaled down 17 stories to the ground, apparently using a rope made out bedsheets, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Officials have launched a massive manhunt.

After the pair were unaccounted for at the 5am headcount at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago yesterday, guards discovered the escape and found that their beds contained clothing arranged to look like bodies. Both men were facing lengthy sentences and authorities warn that they should be considered armed and dangerous. The only other escape from the 27-floor prison happened in 1985, when two inmates rappelled down from the sixth floor. (More Chicago stories.)