Police continued the search Friday for two men who held up a Madison credit union at gunpoint Wednesday and were seen possibly casing two other banks in Waterville the day before.

Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said he considers the two men, described as black males in their late teens or early 20s, to be armed and dangerous.

"They refused to stop for a police officer, were willing to drive recklessly and flee at a very high rate of speed," Massey said Friday. "They're desperate. They know they are being sought for a bank robbery and could have the potential to be dangerous.

"I would caution an officer to consider them armed and dangerous."

Two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and possibly covering their faces with a bandanna or their T-shirts, fled the Franklin Somerset Federal Credit Union on Main Street in Madison with an undisclosed amount of cash at about 11 a.m. Wednesday.

They met up with three other people -- a white male driver and two white females -- and sped off in a brown Pontiac, police said.

Madison Police Chief Barry Moores had made his way to the Madison boat landing by the time the robbers and their accomplices sped away, he said. Moores turned his cruiser sharply to block the escape route, but the driver went off the road into the woods and mud, avoiding a collision with Moores' vehicle.

The car sped off down Route 43, out of town, toward Solon, Cornville and Athens.

Police from four different agencies gave chase, but came up empty.

The men had displayed a gun inside the credit union.

The weapon turned out to be a pellet gun, but in a robbery, that's beside the point, Moores said.

"It's still considered a weapon," Moores said.

"A firearm of any type -- a toy or a pellet gun -- should not be pointed at anybody, real or not. A firearm should not be pointed at an individual, period."

The gun was recovered by police after the men fled into woods behind the credit union.

Either way, Moores said, the crime is felony armed robbery, punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

Lt. Carl Gottardi of the Somerset County Sheriff's Department said a pellet gun can be a powerful weapon, depending at what range the gun is used, the velocity of the charge and the amount of clothing that a person intended as a target is wearing.

"A pellet gun at close range can be compared to a .22," Gottardi said. "Any model, at close range, any of those weapons can be dangerous."

Gottardi said previously convicted felons often will use a pellet gun because they believe possession of a real firearm could land them in jail.

Pellet guns are realistic looking and can prompt immediate attention from law enforcement, he added.

He said people who are unfamiliar with firearms think the guns are real when they see one.

Moores said there is no way of knowing if the men were local or from out of state.

"We're still investigating right now," he said. "More leads are still coming in."

Massey said his detectives are working overtime to help solve the case and its possible link to the Waterville incidents that occurred on Tuesday.

Two men resembling the Madison robbers were spotted inside Key Bank on Kennedy Memorial Drive on Tuesday, and later at Kennebec Federal Savings Bank on nearby Washington Street, in Waterville.

Massey said the suspects in the Madison robbery on Wednesday appear to be the same men whose images were captured on bank-surveillance cameras in Waterville on Tuesday.

Moores said case files of the robbery have been sent to the FBI office in Portland.

Todd Difede, supervisor at FBI headquarters in Portland, said so far, an agent has not been assigned to the Madison case.

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, Ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com