NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- State and local authorities are searching for six inmates, including three convicted murderers, who escaped from a maximum security prison Sunday morning in west Nashville.

The escape took place when two prisoners, let out of their cells to prepare a Ramadan holiday meal for Muslim inmates, overpowered two guards, took their keys, handcuffed them to a chair and placed them in leg irons in a laundry room, said a prison official.

Muslims make up much of the prison population.


Escapees, from top, Coffelt, Perry, Riley, Denton, James and Ulzen

"One of the inmates grabbed one of the correction officers, put an object up to his throat and said 'I won't hurt you if you do what I say,'" said Tennessee Department of Corrections spokeswoman Pam Hobbins.

The object the inmate used was a prison-made knife known as a shank, she said.

Authorities are not sure how they made it over the razor wire fence surrounding the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

"We assume they grabbed a mattress and they put it over the razor wire and then they were able to climb over," Hobbins said.

"I'm sure the adrenaline was flowing with these inmates, so nothing is going to make them stop," she said.

The inmates were wearing prison clothes, including T-shirts and jackets with "Tennessee Department of Corrections" written on them. Two of them may have been wearing the guards' jackets, WTVF-TV reported.

Helicopters and roadblocks have been set up in the area near the prison as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Nashville Police and corrections department authorities search for the escapees.

Hobbins said chances are good they may still be in the area because authorities immediately set up roadblocks after the escape.

Gov. Don Sundquist is urging motorists to exercise caution in picking up strangers while driving through the west Nashville area.

Authorities identified the fugitives as:

Billy Jackson Coffelt, 44, a 6-foot-1-inch, 170-pound, white male with brown hair and brown eyes, sentenced to life for being a habitual criminal.

Aaron Tyrone James, 24, a 5-foot-10-inch, 159-pound, black male with brown hair and brown eyes, sentenced to 50 years for second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

William Kirk Riley, 33, a 5-foot-8-inch, 145-pound white male with brown hair and brown eyes, sentenced to life for first-degree murder.

Jay Roy Denton, 32, a 6-foot, 168-pound white male with brown hair and blue eyes, serving seven years for burglary and escape.

Michael Wayne Perry, 26, a 6-foot-2-inch, 170-pound, white male with strawberry blonde hair, awaiting trial for first-degree murder. Perry has tattoos on both arms.

Lyle Thomas Van Ulzen, 33, a 5-foot-10, 155-pound white male with brown hair and brown eyes serving 65 years for second-degree murder and arson.

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