BAGHDAD — Forty inmates in a prison in eastern Iraq, including some convicted of terrorism charges, have escaped amid a riot that killed at least 12 police officers and 50 prisoners, authorities said Saturday.



There were conflicting casualty reports on the attack at the Khalis prison in Diyala province. Two provincial police officials and a medical official put the toll much higher, saying 51 inmates and 12 policemen were killed, while more than 200 inmates escaped.



They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information. Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press that a fight broke out first among the inmates of the prison and when guards went to investigate, they were overpowered and had their weapons taken.



There are hundreds of inmates in the prison. Some of those that escaped were wanted on terrorism charges, Ibrahim added. He said security forces were cordoning off the area, hunting for the escaped inmates.



He put the death toll at 36, including the six police officers and 30 prisoners. The town of Khalis is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.



The spokesman said the break on Friday started when an inmate took a weapon from a warden at the prison. "One of the prisoners seized a weapon from a guard.



After killing him, the inmate headed up to the weapons storage and he seized more weapons," Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said. "Clashes erupted inside.



We lost a first lieutenant and five policemen, forty prisoners fled. Nine of them were held on terror charges and the rest for common crimes," he said.



Maan added that 30 prisoners who had been held on terrorism charges were killed in the clashes. Jailbreaks are common in Iraq and usually a result of assaults from militants seeking to free their comrades in prison.



The most stunning one was in mid-2013, when militants carried out a carefully orchestrated attack with mortar shells and suicide bombers on Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison, freeing more than 500 inmates. Ibrahim said, however, that there was no external attack that sparked the Khalis riot. — Agencies