Today's Edition
Islamabad (dpa)
More than 200 inmates escaped from a jail in Pakistan after they were evacuated from their cells amid a series of mild earthquakes in Karachi, the country's largest city, officials said on Tuesday.
The inmates overpowered jail guards, smashed down one of the gates and fled Malir prison in the early hours of Tuesday, police official Kashif Zaman told dpa.
Around 80 of the escapees have since been apprehended again near the prison after authorities called in police and paramilitary reinforcement, said Zia Lanjar, home minister for the province of Sindh.
Dozens of police teams were involved in the raid to capture the remaining inmates, Sindh police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said after a visit to the prison.
Most of the escaped inmates were serving time for minor crimes and there weren't any high-profile criminals or terrorists among them, Memon added.
The pre-dawn evacuation was triggered by a series of mild earthquakes measuring between magnitude 2 and 3.6 that rattled the city of more than 20 million overnight and in the morning, Zaman said.
Pakistan's meteorological department said the tremors were caused by underground seismic activity in two fault lines that lies under the city.
The tremors with mild intensity but shallow depth would continue for several days, chief meteorologist Amir Haider said.
