Haiti police search for 329 jail escapees

Police in Haiti are hunting for 329 escaped inmates after they fled during an attack on a jail to free the son of a prominent businessman.

People pass in front of a the high security jail in Croix de Bouquets. Haiti has issued an international warrant in its efforts to re-capture 320 prisoners which escaped.

The attack on a Haitian prison on the capital's outskirts to free the son of a prominent businessman being held on kidnapping charges has led to the escape of 329 inmates, officials say.

Police are searching nationwide for the escaped prisoners.

They have also asked for help from Interpol and authorities in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and nearby Jamaica because some men may have fled abroad, National Police Chief Godson Orleus said at a news conference in Port-au-Prince on Monday.

So far, authorities have managed to capture only 10 of the prisoners who escaped Sunday when armed gunman attacked the prison in Croix-des-Bouquets to free Clifford Brandt, a member of a wealthy family, who has been held since 2012 for allegedly running a kidnapping ring in the capital.

Authorities are offering a reward equal to about $A27,000 for information leading to Brandt's recapture.

The prison, which was built in 2012 with assistance from the Canadian government after the January 2010 earthquake damaged another one in the capital, held 899 prisoners.