Officers are hunting a former police chief and convicted killer and rapist nicknamed “Devil in the Ozarks” who escaped from prison over the weekend.

Grant Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape.

On Sunday, Hardin escaped from the North Central Unit — a prison also known as the Calico Rock prison — by disguising himself and wearing a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement,” state prison officials said in a statement.

“That was not a standard inmate uniform, not a standard correctional uniform,” said Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas department of corrections.

Authorities are using dogs, drones and helicopters to search for the escapee, Mr Champion added. “Everything we’ve got, we’re using,” he said.