Taliban militants have stormed a prison in the central Afghan city of Ghazni, killing at least four police officers and freeing hundreds of inmates, officials said.

Deputy governor Mohammed Ali Ahmadi said 352 prisoners had escaped, including around 150 Taliban.

He said seven Taliban and four members of the Afghan security forces were killed in the attack in Ghazni, about 120 kilometres south-west of the capital, Kabul.

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“Around 2:30am, six Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison,” Mr Ahmadi said.

“First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG and then raided the prison.”

Baz Mohammed Hemat, head of the city’s hospital, said 14 wounded people — 10 security forces, and four inmates — had been brought to the facility for treatment.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said gunmen and three suicide bombers attacked the prison and freed 400 prisoners.

“40 Afghan security forces and prison guards were killed in the prison break and important military mujahideen officials have been freed,” he said in a statement.

The Taliban, which launched a countrywide summer offensive in late April, are known to exaggerate and distort their public statements.

Security officials would not confirm how many prisoners were in the jail, or the number of casualties.

The Taliban are fighting to overthrow the foreign-backed government of president Ashraf Ghani, expel foreign forces from Afghanistan and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

In 2011, almost 500 Taliban fighters and commanders escaped from a prison in a jailbreak in southern Kandahar province, in what the government said was a security “disaster”.