Bloodhounds and helicopters with night-vision cameras have been used to search snake-infested swampland around the prison for Martin Gurule, who escaped early on Friday.

Gurule was convicted of the murder of a restaurant owner in 1992.

Clarence Mitchell: "Officers wait for hunger to drive the convict into their arms."

Police believe he is still in the area and that hunger will force him out from hiding.

A spokesman for the Texan state police, Glenn Castleberry, said they were now confident of re-capturing him.

"With now over 80 hours of sleep deprivation and hunger and fear at the constant barking of the hounds that are going through there, the man has to be in get into a state of desperation," he said.

"He will have to start moving and when he does we will get him."

Breaking out

Gurule is the first prisoner on Death Row to have escaped from a Texas jail since the 1930s when an associate of legendary outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow broke out.

Death row fugitive Martin Gurule

Altogether seven prisoners took part in the escape bid from Huntsville prison, but only Gurule, 29, made it beyond the perimeter fence.

Their plan relied on one of the oldest tricks in the book - they fashioned dummies so it appeared they were sleeping in bed.

But in reality they had stayed behind in the prison's recreation yard, where they cut through an interior fence and hid on a roof for several hours.

They used dye from felt tip pens to colour their prison overalls grey.

Early on Friday a prison guard spotted them jumping from the roof and sounded the alarm. He fired up to 20 shots stopping six of the prisoners in their tracks.

But Gurule kept on running, and leapt over a perimeter fence.

He is now being hunted by law-enforcement officials who are using tracking dogs to pick up his scent.

"We do consider this inmate dangerous," prison spokesman Larry Todd said.

"We have no reason to believe that he is armed, but we do think that they had been planning this for several days."

Last year Gurule's appeal against his conviction was turned down but no date had yet been set for his execution.