Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram militant sect attacked a prison in the northeastern Nigeria, killing a resident and setting free hundreds of inmates, a police source told Xinhua on Friday.

Police confirmed the raid after residents in Borno State reported that the gunmen stormed the prison at about 7:00 p.m. local time on Thursday.

The attackers are suspected to be the same group targeting a police station 10 days ago at a Nigeria-Cameroon border town of Gwoza, killing eight people including a police officer.

"The Boko Haram men came with explosions which they were throwing at the prison. I ran home from where I usually chat with my friends in the evening before the 7:30 p.m. local time prayer time (Muslim Prayer) because I was scared of the blast. They destroyed the prison, broke the gate and I was told this morning all the inmates escaped during the attack," Ishaya Ibrahim, a resident said.

The security source said the Boko Haram men attacked the prison because some of their men arrested from previous attacks or related crimes were kept in custody at the Gwoza prison.

Gwoza is a small community about 134 km southeast of the state capital Maiduguri and the epicenter of Boko Haram insurgence, where the Nigerian government has declared and lifted several curfews due to waves of attacks.