Maputo - Mozambican police on Tuesday denied reports that Anibal dos Santos Junior, the convicted killer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, had been arrested following his escape from prison on Sunday.

Teofilo Nhampossa, an interior ministry official, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the reports in private media of dos Santos' recapture were false.

Dos Santos, nicknamed "Anibalzinho" and two fellow prisoners were still at large, he said.

"Up to now there is no information whatsoever on his whereabouts," he added.

Authorities believes the escapees are still inside the country.

Dos Santos escaped from a maximum security prison in Mozambique's capital Maputo in broad daylight.

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

Dos Santos 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.

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

In January 2006, his sentence was increased to 30 years.

The prison break is his third in six years. (dpa)