HANOI, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two Vietnamese men under death sentence have escaped from a prison in Vietnam's Hanoi capital, local media reported on Thursday.

Nguyen Van Tinh, 28, from Hanoi, in April received death sentence for the charge of drug trafficking, and Le Van Tho, 37, from northern Hai Duong province, in May was sentenced to death for the charges of drug trafficking, murder and swindling for appropriation of assets, online newspaper VietNamNet reported.

Tinh and seven accomplices trafficked a total of 80 cakes of heroin weighing over 28.2 kg.

Tho committed most of his serious crimes when he served a jail term in a prison in northern Ha Nam province. He illegally acquired a mobile phone and used it to instruct his underlings to murder people and trade lab-made drugs between 2014 and 2015.

Hanoi police are hunting Tho and Tinh who on Sept. 11 escaped from T16 Detention Center in the rural district of Thanh Oai, online newspaper Zing reported.