Reports from Niger say security forces searching for a group of prisoners who escaped from a jail in the town of Zinder have arrested two-hundred people suspected of harbouring them.

The arrests came after police conducted house-to-house searches and surrounded and then shut down the market in Zinder -- the country's second biggest town.

The break-out followed protests over conditions in the prison and delays over legal proceedings.

More than sixty prisoners are believed to be still at large.