TRIPOLI - Some 170 prisoners escaped on Tuesday from a prison in Libya's Sebha, some 800 km south of the capital of Tripoli, local official told Xinhua.

Abobker Hamza, Sebha's local council spokesman, said the escape took place after a dispute among the prisoners turned into chaos.

So far, some of the prisoners have turned themselves in and some have been hunted down, while a large number of them remain at large, Abobker noted.

The local council members have met with Ramadan Barrasi, military governor of southern Libya, to discuss ways to deal with the incident, he added.

The Sebha prison witnessed four escapes in two months due to the deteriorating security situation in the city.