FRIENDSHIP, N.Y. – The intensive manhunt for two escaped killers shifted Saturday to a rural area 350 miles southwest of the prison from where they fled two weeks ago.

Scores of local, state and federal law officers combed Allegany County along the Pennsylvania border after separate reports of two men who resembled escapees Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, were seen in the area.

Businesses and residents in the area were told to lock their doors and be on the lookout for the escapees. Tracking dogs on the ground and helicopters in the sky scoured the lightly-populated county bisected by the Genesee River that flows north to Lake Ontario.

William Duffy, a spokesman for the New York State Police, said a woman driving on a rural road in the area saw two men emerge from the woods, then quickly duck back in. She told police one had red hair like Sweat and the other pulled a hooded sweatshirt over his head.

Two days earlier, Duffy said, two men resembling the escapees were seen walking near a rail yard in neighboring Steuben County near the Pennsylvania border.

Matt and Sweat broke out of the maximum security prison in northeast New York State June 6, and the manhunt for them has been concentrated within a 16 miles radius of the prison ever since. The descriptive sightings of the escapees changed the location of the police dragnet.

The U.S. Marshals Service posted photos of Matt and Sweat to their “most wanted” list earlier in the week. Stacia Hylton, the director of the Marshals Service, said the list is “reserved for the worst of the worst.”

Meanwhile, investigators seeking answers to how two convicted killers brazenly escaped from the prison said a corrections officer was placed on administrative leave Friday in connection with the escape plot.

His name was not released. The announcement was the first major development in the escape investigation since authorities arrested Joyce Mitchell, 51, a supervisor in the prison’s tailoring shop.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Mitchell had befriended both convicts, supplying them with contraband tools used in the brazen escape. Wylie said Mitchell was to drive the getaway car but got cold feet the night of the escape and instead checked herself into a hospital for an anxiety attack.

She was arrested six days after the escape and later told authorities she had a sexual relationship with Matt, the older of the two convicts. She had also been questioned before the escape about her relationship with Sweat.

Investigators said they have been carefully reviewing prison records on the suspicion that other workers inside the prison assisted the carefully planned escape that included breaking through a brick wall and cutting an escape hatch in a steam pipe that led to a manhole outside the prison.

A lockdown of the maximum security prison was lifted two days ago, allowing prisoners to resume normal activities, including eating in the mess hall and engaging in recreational activities.

Authorities said they are continuing to question prisoners about any knowledge they had of the escape plot or the possible whereabouts of Matt and Sweat.

Sweat was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of a deputy sheriff. Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life for torturing, killing and dismembering the body of a former boss.

Details for this story were provided by the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican.

One of the officers was placed on administrative leave Friday from the Clinton Correctional Facility. He was not identified but authorities said he was often seen at night at the cellblock where escapees Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, were housed.

The other three officers were frequently observed in or around the cellbock as well. They were not put on immediate leave but authorities said they remain subjects of the investigation and their phone records are being thoroughly reviewed.

Meanwhile, the manhunt in the wooded, hilly terrain around the prison in the northeast corner of New York State continued without hard leads. But authorities reported there were two sightings of men resembling the escapees about 300 miles southwest of the prison near the New York-Pennsylvania border.

Those reports were received a week ago, according to State Police. They were not made public until now because the descriptions of the fugitives could not be conclusively determined from surveillance videos.

The reports said two men were spotted in a rail yard in Erwin, N.Y., and later walking along County Road 115 in Lindley, N.Y., headed toward the Pennsylvania border a few miles south.  State and federal law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania and New York were dispatched to the area to help check out the reports.

The U.S. Marshals Service posted photos of Matt and Sweat to their “most wanted” list on Thursday.  Stacia Hylton, the director of the Marshals Service, said the list is “reserved for the worst of the worst.”

But placement of a corrections officer on leave was the first significant development in the case since authorities arrested Joyce Mitchell, 51, a supervisor in the prison’s tailoring shop, for helping Matt and Sweat flee the prison on June 6 by cutting through the steels walls of their adjoining cells.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Mitchell had befriended both convicts, supplying them with contraband tools used in the brazen escape.  Wylie said Mitchell was to drive the getaway car but got cold feet the night of the escape and instead checked herself into a hospital for an anxiety attack.

She was arrested six days after the escape and later told authorities she had a sexual relationship with Matt, the older of the two convicts. She had also been questioned before the escape about her relationship with Sweat.

Investigators said they have been carefully reviewing prison records on the suspicion that other workers inside the prison assisted the carefully planned escape that included breaking through a brick wall and cutting an escape hatch in a steam pipe that led to a manhole outside the prison.

A lockdown of the maximum security prison was lifted two days ago, allowing prisoners to resume normal activities, including eating in the mess hall and engaging in recreational activities.

Authorities said they are continuing to question prisoners about any knowledge they had of the escape plot or the possible whereabouts of Matt and Sweat.

Sweat was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of a deputy sheriff. Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life for torturing, killing and dismembering the body of a former boss.