A Texas inmate armed with a knife escaped Thursday following an appearance at a Houston court after holding an employee of the district attorney’s against her will and trying to take her car, officials said.

Joshua Nigel Thomas Sanders, 35, was being sought by law enforcement Thursday evening after the escape that occurred at around 3:30 p.m.

“He went to court today, and it appears on his way back from court he was able to facilitate an escape,” Harris County Sheriff’s Assistant Chief Phillip Bosquez said at a news conference.

“He accosted a woman during that escape, once he got out on the street, and he jumped in her car. She wrecked that car within just a few feet,” he said.

Sanders got out of the disabled car and ran down the street, and that was the last time he is known to have been seen on camera, Bosquez said.

The woman held at knifepoint was later released unharmed, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said.

“She was of course shaken up, but she was not injured,” Bosquez said. The woman was leaving work at the building when the incident occurred.

Sanders, described as a transient, was in custody on three counts of burglary and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, Bosquez said.

“We truly believe we’ll run him to the ground,” he said. The sheriff’s office asked for any assistance from the public in searching for him.

Investigators believe Sanders had a knife during the escape, but Bosquez did not specify where it may have came from. “Anywhere once he got outside the jail,” he said.

An investigation into how the escape occurred is underway.

Anyone seeing Sanders is not to contact him, but to call 911 or Crime Stoppers. He is described as around 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 140 pounds.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com