Dozens of prisoners escaped from a jail in the Pakistan city of Karachi late on Monday night, a provincial law minister said.
The jail break occurred after several earthquakes caused panic among the prisoners, the minister, Zia-ul-Hasan Lanjar, told reporters outside Malir prison.
His comments were carried live on local TV news channels on Tuesday.
Lanjar said 46 of the escapees had been captured but he did not say how many prisoners had escaped.
The prison break was one of the largest ever in Pakistan, he said.
A series of low-magnitude earthquakes shook Karachi on Sunday and Monday.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) recorded six seismic events over the two-day period. The first quake struck on Sunday, June 1, at 5:33 PM with a magnitude of 3.6 and a depth of 10 kilometres, centred near Quaidabad.
On Monday, June 2, five additional quakes followed, ranging between magnitudes 2.2 and 3.2. Epicentres were reported near Quaidabad, Gadap Town, and southeast of Malir, with depths varying from 10 to 188 kilometres.