Maputo - Mozambican police embarked Monday on a manhunt for the convicted killer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso after the killer escaped from a maximum security prison in Maputo on Sunday, a few years into his 30-year sentence.

The police have issued a countrywide alert after Anibal dos Santos junior, known as Anibalzinho, escaped with two other prisoners in broad daylight from their cells, and appealed for anyone with information about their whereabouts to come forward.

One of the other escapees Custodio Luis de Jesus is serving time for the murder of a policeman and a prison director, while the second, Samuel Chavangueza, is an accomplice of Agostinho Chauque, a man sought for a number of bank robberies and murders of a number of police officers.

Police were seen Monday patrolling some neighbourhoods of Maputo, where they believe the three might be hiding, including the area around dos Santos' home. Security has also been tightened at the nearby borders with South Africa and Swaziland, police officials said.

The prison break is third in six years by dos Santos, who was convicted in 2005 of heading the death squad that murdered Cardoso in November 2000. Cardoso had been investigating corruption surrounding the privatization of Mozambique's biggest commercial bank, BCM.

Interior Minister Jose Pacheco has accused the police of facilitating Sunday's escape, which took place around 10:00 a. m. (0800 GMT).

The prisoners clambered out through a hole in the prison wall, which they had bored using a screwdriver. The police guards on duty at the time have all been detained.

Dos Santos was arrested in February 2001 for Cardoso's murder. n September 2002, shortly before the case came to trial, he escaped from prison and slipped over the border into South Africa.

He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 28 years and six months imprisonment.

In January 2006, his sentence was increased to 30 years, which he was currently serving. (dpa)