Suspected al-Qaida militants carried out an armed attack targeting the Central Prison headquarters in Yemen's southeast province of Hadramout and managed to release a number of prisoners on Wednesday, a provincial security official told Xinhua.

The militants launched attacks using heavy machine guns and grenades at the Central Prison headquarters in al-Mukalla city, the provincial capital of Hadramout and released about ten prisoners, injuring the guards around the building, the official told Xinhua, who asked to remain anonymous.

Local residents told Xinhua that the security forces with armored vehicles were heavily deployed in the city after the attack.

A number of Yemen's southern and eastern provinces experienced during the past two months an active and wide presence of the al- Qaida, which was exploiting the precarious situation of the country.