Two prisoners have escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop.

One prisoner is a bank robber just convicted last week, the other a bank robbery suspect facing trial.

Authorities discovered them missing from their prison cell at the federal jail at about 8:45 a.m Tuesday.

The jail is located at 71 W. Van Buren.

The prisoners were last checked at 5 a.m.

A tan rope could be seen dangling from about 15 stories up along the south side of the MCC, but police would not say whether it was involved in the escape.

One of the inmates is Joseph Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit who was convicted last week of two bank robberies and two attempted holdups, according to Lazzaro. He made off with a combined nearly $600,000 in the heists, authorities said.

The other suspect was identified as Ken Conley, accused of robbing nearly $4,000 from a Homewood bank last year.

Conley was arrested after showing up at a Chicago Heights strip club where he worked dressed in the same black suit and white tie the bank robber wore and flashing a wad of cash, authorities said.

Chicago Breaking News contributed to this report