Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province on Friday offered 100,000 dollars (72,000 euros) for information leading to the arrest of a top militia leader who broke out of jail.

Kyungu Mutanga, also known as "Commander Gedeon", took part in a spectacular jailbreak on Wednesday, in which more than 960 inmates of the Kassapa prison in Katanga's capital Lubumbashi escaped when the jail was attacked by an armed gang.

Two people were killed and four injured during the attack by the gang who launched their assault from a minibus.

"We have put 100,000 dollars on the table for the person who brings us or leads us to arrest Gedeon," the former head of a Mai-Mai tribal self-defence militia in the region, the provincial minister of the interior, Dikanga Kazadi, told AFP.

Gedeon was the first to be freed along with a woman, a member of the Coordination for a Referendum on Self-Determination for Katanga (Corak), a secessionist group accused of attacking Lubumbashi airport in February, when a civilian was killed.

A reward of 10,000 dollars has been offered for the capture of this woman, with 500 dollars for the others on the run.

On Thursday night, about 15 convicts exchanged shots with soldiers at a military camp near the prison, Kazadi said, adding that "there was no victim".

About 230 escapees have been recaptured since Wednesday, including Corak members and Commander Gedeon's wife, the minister added.

In March 2009, a military tribunal in Katanga sentenced Gedeon to death for "war crimes, crimes against humanity, insurrection and terrorism," committed in the province between 2003 and 2006.