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Armed attackers released more than 1,800 detainees from a prison in southern Nigeria.
As the correctional authority announced on Monday, the prison in the city of Owerri in the southern state of Imo was attacked by heavily armed men.
The attackers reportedly set off explosives to break into the detention center and exchanged fire with the prison guards.
A spokesman for the Imo prison authorities was initially unable to say exactly how many prisoners escaped.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack on the prison as an "act of terrorism".
He asked the security forces to catch the inmates and their liberators.
The governor of the neighboring state of Abia imposed a night curfew in two cities to protect residents.
It was initially unclear who was behind the crime.
Imo belongs to a region in southern Nigeria that has long been shaped by conflicts with the Igbo ethnic group.
The Indigenous People of Biafra movement, striving for independence, recently released internet videos showing dozens of their fighters training.
After fighting with soldiers, the authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Imo earlier this year.