More than 200 prisoners escaped from prison and at least one was killed in a gunfight in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, officials said Tuesday, as temporary removal from the cell due to earthquake tremors.

Senior police officer Kashif Abbasi said 216 prisoners fled the prison in the Sindh capital. Of these, 78 were recaptured. He said no one was convicted or faced trial by militants.

Abasi said a prisoner was killed in a subsequent gunfight and three security officials were injured, but the situation was under control.

Provincial Law Minister Zia-ul-Hasan Lanjar told reporters on the scene that prisoners were allowed to enter the yard and felt "panic" due to the tremor, Reuters reported. He said the breakthrough began before midnight on Monday and continued in the early hours of Tuesday.

Officials said the prisoners were still outside the cell when a group suddenly attacked the guards, grabbed the weapon, opened fire and fled.

Arshad Shah, principal of Marill Prison, said the inmates fled to a nearby residential area. Police later used mosque speakers to remind them of jailbreak and sought help from arresting escaped, according to residents.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who has nothing to do with prison officials, asked the escapees to return voluntarily in his comments on TV, saying they were not involved in minor crimes until then. But he said they could face terror charges if arrested by police on jailbreak charges.

Although prisoners escaped while being sent to court for trial, prisoners are not common in Pakistan, with authorities strengthening security since 2013 when the Pakistani Taliban released more than 200 prisoners, attacking the prison of Dera Ismail Ismail Khan. But the latest one is one of the largest in Pakistan, Lanhar said.

According to the National Earthquake Monitoring Center, Karachi experienced several mild and shallow earthquakes in 24 hours, ranging from 2.6 to 3.4.