Around 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel dug between the prison and the outside on Sunday night, and disappeared into Kandahar city, said prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar. The majority of the missing were Taliban militants, according to him.

Insurgents on the outside dug the tunnel to the prison over five months, bypassing government checkpoints and major roads, said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. The diggers finally poked through to the prison cells on Sunday night, and the inmates were ushered through the tunnel to freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, Mujahid said in a statement.

The massive overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan's second-largest city serves as a reminder of the Afghan government's continuing weakness in the south, despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers.

Kandahar city has been a focus of the international effort to establish a strong Afghan government presence in former Taliban strongholds. The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has undergone security upgrades and tightened procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban attack that freed 900 prisoners.

AP