Authorities in northern Pakistan were looking for 384 inmates who escaped from a prison early Sunday morning after 300 Taliban militants raided it.
The attack took place in the city of Bannu in northwest Pakistan, an area known for a heavy militant presence.
Iftikhar Khan, a senior police official in Bannu, said the attack lasted more than two hours and wounded three prison officials.
Of the 944 prisoners the facility held, 384 escaped, he said. Among them were two who were awaiting execution.
One, Adnan Rashid, had been found guilty in the attempted murder of former President Pervez Musharraf in 2003. The other, Safi Ullah, was convicted of several bombings in northern Pakistan in recent years, officials said.
But the militants apparently were aiming to free a senior Taliban commander, said Iftikhar Hussain, the minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province where Bannu is located.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, according to its spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
"We will go where we need to go" said Ehsan, vowing to continue attacks that would result in the release of other imprisoned Taliban fighters.
