"We are conscious of the societal anxiety over our inability to recapture the five", he told a news conference at Police headquarters.

"We are asking members of the public and the press to be patient with us. We are very much concerned that those men are still at large", the Commissioner said.

He added: "We are working overtime to deal with the situation. All we ask of you is to bear with us. We do not want to make mistakes."

"Law and order must and will prevail", he stressed, thanking the public for its understanding.

He declined to go into details of the search operation saying this could compromise the security of the Police Force.

McDonald believes the gang is being supported by person or persons living either on the East Coast Demerara or the East Bank Demerara.

Police, backed by the Army in the intensive hunt for the killer gang, last week said a gang member was in a shooting spree in an East Coast Demerara village Friday night.

Police said Shawn Brown was involved in the shooting of two persons in Friendship and they were investigating.

The two were treated for gunshot wounds at the Georgetown Hospital and discharged, Police said.

Police are offering a $10M reward for information leading to their recapture.

The five escapees - Troy Dick, Dale Moore, Andrew Douglas, Mark Fraser and Brown - have been linked to several car hijackings and robberies since their daring daylight escape from the Georgetown Prison.

Police said the gang was involved in the killing of well-known anti-crime fighter, Police Superintendent Leon Fraser on April 2 when he and other cops closed in on a car partly hidden in a clump of bushes at Yarowkabra on the Linden/Soesdyke highway.

Fraser, shot in the head, was the second murder victim of the band which also killed Prison Officer Troy Williams, 21, when it broke out of the Georgetown jail.

One of the five also shot Woman Prison Officer, Roxanne Whinfield, 36, in the head as they fled and she remains in critical condition at a medical institution overseas.

There has been an escalation in criminal activities in and around Georgetown and specific areas along the East Coast Demerara since the dramatic escape by the prisoners.

The Police Force has been maintaining a constant presence in and around the Buxton/Friendship area.

Meanwhile, pamphlets identifying the five as `Five for freedom' and threatening members of the Police Force and their families and Government officials, are being circulated.

Police are investigating, a top official said yesterday, confirming that the threatening document has been sent through the mail to senior Government officials and top functionaries of the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), including General Secretary, Mr. Donald Ramotar.

The document said "We regret the loss of life of Prison Officer Williams and the injury to Roxanne Winfield."

Another pamphlet describing the five as `freedom fighters' surfaced last month during the funeral for Buxton resident Shaka Blair, who died after he was shot by Police who went to arrest him at his Buxton home.

The funeral was organised by the main Opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNC/R) which condemned "certain unknown elements" that it said sought to capitalise on its mobilisation to distribute, during the procession, a pamphlet entitled `Shaka Lives'.

The PNC/R said it had nothing to do with that pamphlet.