Updated 0157 GMT (0857 HKT) June 22, 2015
(CNN)After 16 days on the run, two convicted killers who escaped from a New York prison could be anywhere. But authorities continued Sunday to comb through a rural "hot spot" in southwestern New York state.
The latest possible sighting of fugitives Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, came in Allegany County, just north of the Pennsylvania border. That's where a witness reported seeing two men along a railroad line Saturday in the town of Friendship, New York State Police said.
While state police called the report an "unconfirmed sighting," a law enforcement source briefed on the prisoner investigation told CNN there was a credible sighting of Matt and Sweat near Friendship.
About 300 law enforcement officers have searched the area, Maj. Michael Cerretto of the New York State Police said Sunday at a press conference. Canine units and aircraft were used in the search, he said.
"We will continue to search this are until all leads are exhausted," he said.
The Allegany County Sheriff's Office said a tipster led investigators to a set of tracks in the area. Authorities were following the tracks to try to determine whether they're from the two escapees.
If Matt and Sweat were indeed in Friendship, that means they somehow traveled more than 300 miles southwest of Dannemora, New York, where they had escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility.
A rifle in his lap
The sudden swarm of attention on Friendship has bewildered the rural town of 2,000 people.
Gary Baker, 80, said he's terrified of the possibility that the killers are in the area.
Normally, Baker is a caretaker at the town's Maple Grove Cemetery, right next to his home. But authorities blocked off the cemetery as search helicopters hovered overhead.
Now, Baker sits alone in his home, with all his doors locked and a rifle in his lap.
"I think they're really serious that they've seen somebody," Baker said. "I just hope they catch them."
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