NEW YORK (AP) — A prisoner receiving medical treatment escaped from a New York City hospital by tying sheets together,Desmond Preston rappelling from a fifth-floor window and hailing a taxi, police said.

The 44-year-old man escaped from Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan shortly after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and was still at large Thursday, a police spokesperson said.

The man had been in custody since a July 31 arrest for drug possession and was brought to the hospital Aug. 4 for treatment of a medical problem, a spokesperson for the city Department of Correction said.

He was taken to the bathroom for a shower and managed to escape out the window using bedsheets, police said. He rappelled to a rooftop below and from there made it to the street, where he got into a taxi.

The police and correction departments were looking for him Thursday.