They walked out of a hotel room that served as a mini-arsenal after police allowed them to be interviewed by a local television station. In the telephone interview, they complained about the Texas penal system, which they said was ruining the lives of young inmates.

Officials were visibly relieved that the surrender took place without violence. “All of us in our heart of hearts believed this could have ended up in a gun battle. We are elated with the outcome,'' Mark Mershon, special FBI agent in charge of Colorado, said after the 5 hours and 45 minutes of negotiations that ended in the peaceful surrender.

The hunt for the escapees, who became known as the “Texas Seven'', took on an air of the Wild West, prompting comparisons with the 1930s infamous bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Four of their comrades were captured in Colorado on January 22 and another shot himself to death in the trailer that was their hideout in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Police allowed the duo to speak with a television reporter -- who was in the command post at the hotel -- because of the rapport the police had established with the two during the negotiations by telephone, Colorado Springs police department spokesman Lt. Skip Arms told reporters.

“We feel very fortunate that this happened without injury to anybody,'' Arms said moments after Patrick Murphy, 39, and Donald Newbury, 38, walked out of a Holiday Inn hotel.

A search of the hotel room the two were holed up in produced two shotguns and 10 pistols.

Mershon said police were investigating the possibility that accomplices helped the seven, but declined to elaborate.

The seven were wanted for killing a police officer, Aubrey Hawkins, in Irving, Texas in a Christmas Eve robbery at a sporting goods store where cash and weapons were taken, allowing the fugitives to finance their life on the run.

Texas officials have said they plan to seek the death penalty for the slaying of the police officer.

Hawkins' mother Jayne Hawkins, who has launched a vocal one-woman campaign to reform Texas prison security since her son's death, said she was relieved by the surrender.

“I'm elated and relieved. Now we're safe, now we can begin to move forward and make sure this never happens again,'' she told reporters at her home in Dallas.