Canadian police are on the hunt for two inmates who escaped from a Quebec prison Sunday in a helicopter.
The escape happened at around 2:20 p.m. ET at a prison in Saint-Jerome, northwest of Montreal, said Quebec provincial police spokesman Benoit Richard.
"I can tell you one thing: The two people that were inside the jail needed help to get out," he told CNN.
The helicopter was later found at Mont-Tremblant, also in Quebec.
The pilot was taken to a hospital for examination and will be questioned by investigators, Richard said. He did not know whether the pilot had been injured and declined to speculate on news reports that said the inmates had held a gun to the pilot's head, forcing him to fly.
The spokesman identified the escapees as Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Dany Provencal.
Hudon-Barbeau was cleared on appeal of a double murder, but returned to prison in connection with an attempted murder investigation, Richard said. The spokesman did not know what Provencal was convicted of.
After his escape, a man claiming to be Hudon-Barbeau spoke to a reporter at 98.5 FM in Montreal, by phone.
"I don't want to cause any harm to anybody. I am not a killer. I never did anything bad to an innocent. I know that (the escape) wasn't the best thing to do, but I didn't want to stay in prison anymore. I am ready to die," the radio station reported he said.
It also reported that the helicopter involved approached the prison and dropped a cable that allowed the inmates to escape.
Once the helicopter landed, Hudon-Barbeau and Provencal are believed to have left in a car. Police are looking for that car, but the police spokesman declined to provide a description of it.
Officials are doing a headcount at the prison to make sure that no one else is unaccounted for, Richard said.
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