TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 200 prisoners escaped in the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan on Monday night after they were allowed to leave their cells following a series of earthquakes, said local officials and police.
As reported by CNA, hundreds of prisoners were allowed into the prison yard because of the tremors, said Zia-ul-Hasan Lanjar, provincial law minister, to journalists at the scene.
"There was panic here because of the earthquake tremors," Lanjar said, adding that it was difficult to control the crowd of up to 1,000 people.
The jailbreak began just before midnight on Monday and continued into early Tuesday on June 3, 2025.
Police said the prisoners seized guns from prison staff, leading to a shootout, and then broke through the main gate.
On Tuesday, a reporter at the scene saw shattered glass and damaged electronic equipment inside the prison. A meeting room, where prisoners met their families, had been ransacked. Anxious family members gathered outside the prison on Tuesday.
This is one of the largest jailbreaks ever in Pakistan, Lanjar said. The prison in the Malir district in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is in a poor residential and industrial neighborhood.
The prisoners ran in the area overnight, some barefoot, chased by the police, while the police managed to collect some prisoners into police vehicles, as shown in local television footage.
Provincial police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said that most of the prisoners were involved in minor crimes such as drug addiction.
At least one prisoner was killed in the shooting, which also injured three prison staff, he said.
Murad Ali Shah, the provincial chief minister, said that about 80 prisoners have been recaptured so far, adding that it was a mistake by prison authorities to allow the prisoners to leave their cells.
He warned those still at large to surrender, or face serious charges for escaping. "Petty crime charges will become a big case like terrorism," Shah said.
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