Prison officials let out their cells due to earthquake tremors. 216 managed to flee, the authorities say.

More than 200 inmates escaped from a prison and at least one died in a shooting in the city of Karachi in southern Pakistani after they were temporarily transferred from their cells due to earthquake tremors, authorities said on Tuesday.

Kashif Abbasi, a high police officer, said that 216 inmates fled from prison in the capital of Sindh’s province. Of them, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing the trial as a militant was among those who fled, he said.

A prisoner was killed and three security officials injured in the shooting that followed, but the situation has been controlled, said Abbasi, adding that the police were making raids to capture the remaining escapes.

Zia-Ul-Haha Lanjar, the Minister of Provincial Law, told journalists on the scene that the inmates were allowed to enter the patio and that there was “panic” due to the tremors, reports the Reuters news agency. The rupture began just before midnight on Monday and continued in the early hours of Tuesday, he said.

The inmates were still out of the cells when a group suddenly attacked the guards, confiscated their weapons, opened fire and fled, the authorities said.

The Superintendent of Malir prison, Arshad Shah, said the inmates fled to a nearby residential area. According to residents, the police then used mosque speakers to alert them on the Jailbreak and seek help to stop the escapes.

Sindh’s Prime Minister Murad Ali Shah, who is not related to the prison official, asked the escapes in televised comments to return voluntarily, saying that they had only been involved in minor crimes until that moment. But he said they could face terrorist charges if they are arrested by the police for the position of Jailbreak.

Although the prisoners have escaped while they are transported to the courts for the trial, the breaks in the prison are not common in Pakistan, where the authorities have improved security since 2013, when the Pakistani Taliban liberated more than 200 inmates in an attack against a prison in the Northwest District of Dera Ismail Khan. But the last thing was one of Pakistan’s greatest, Lanjar said.

Karachi has experienced several minor and shallow earthquakes in 24 hours, ranging from 2.6 to 3.4 in magnitude, according to the National Seismic Monitoring Center.

• Pakistan