New York prison escape: Second escapee David Sweat in police custody after manhunt - reports

His capture last night was the dramatic climax to a three-week police chase

The search for prisoner David Sweat is reportedly over, with the escaped inmate currently in custody after being shot by police near the Canadian border (AP)

US prisoner-on-the-run David Sweat has been shot and captured by police near the Canadian border.

His capture last night was the dramatic climax to a three-week police chase to find him and fellow inmate Richard Matt, who had escaped from a prison in New York State.

The pair had been on the run from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York since June 6 with 1,300 police officers involved in the manhunt.

Sweat, 35, was shot by police and taken into custody in Constable, New York – just five miles south of the state’s border with the Canadian province of Quebec.

His accomplice Matt, 49, was shot dead by police on Friday in Duane, 23 miles south of Constable.

A New York State police spokesman said Sergeant Jay Cook of the New York State Police had spotted "a suspicious man walking down a roadway" at about 3:20 p.m. local time.

He then shot and injured the man, who turned out to be Sweat.

Sweat was taken into custody alive, and then taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Local media reported Sweat was bleeding badly from “life-threatening wounds” and a photograph of released on CNN shortly after his capture showed him seated on the ground in a dark jacket and muddy camouflage with what appeared to be dried blood on his face.

Security was tight outside the Alice Hyde Medical Centre in Malone, where Sweat was transported.

Malone resident Jessica Randall, 38, expressed her relief at Sweat’s capture, “I think a lot of people are going to rest easier tonight”, she said.

Sweat and Matt cut through cell walls, climbed along a catwalk and shimmied down a steam pipe emerging from a manhole outside prison walls to make their escape.

Sweat had been serving a life sentence without parole in 2003 for killing a New York sheriff's deputy.

Matt was convicted in the 1997 torture, murder and dismemberment of his boss in Tonawanda, New York.

Two prison workers have been charged with aiding in the escape.