Taleban jail raid frees hundreds

More than 1,000 people are thought to have escaped, Kandahar provincial council head Wali Karzai said.

Nato troops are helping Afghan forces hunt for the prisoners.

The BBC's Martin Patience, in Kabul, says the Afghan police and army are conducting house to house searches in Kandahar, while Nato forces are using helicopters to secure the city and the outlying districts.

A state of emergency was declared in the city, the second biggest in the country, after the attack on Friday night. All residents were ordered to stay in their homes.

A Taleban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said that 30 fighters on motorbikes and two suicide bombers had attacked the prison, freeing about 400 Taleban members.