Bangor Police say a report spreading across social media of escaped inmates from Penobscot County Jail is inaccurate.

Sergeant Wade Betters of the Bangor police on Tuesday alerted local media that the report on a local Facebook page was "fake news." The statement came in response to several posts on Facebook's Penobscot County Area Scanner Page stating police were searching Bangor for two escaped inmates from the jail.

The posts were up for about two hours before being deleted.

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Betters said the real story is that an officer saw and identified a man with an active drug trafficking warrant near 22 Ohio Street. The officer called out to the man, who took off running. Officers flooded the area in an attempt to locate the suspect, but they were unable to find him.

The search of the area, Betters said, had nothing to do with inmates from the Penobscot County Jail.

In issuing the statement, Betters said the Bangor police wanted to head off any potential fears from area residents. He stressed that there are no potentially dangerous escapees in the area.

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