An attempted jail break from DR Congo's largest prison has left at least 129 people dead and led to women being raped, the interior minister said Tuesday.

The circumstances around the bid to bust out of the Makala prison in the capital Kinshasa, which holds 10 times the number it is meant to house, in the early hours of Monday remain unclear.

On Monday, witnesses told AFP they had heard gunfire at around 2:00 am that lasted for several hours in the area of the prison, a popular and residential neighbourhood.

Democratic Republic of Congo Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani in a statement released by video on Tuesday announced a provisional death toll of 129 people.

They included "24 who were shot after warnings", he said.

At least 59 others had been wounded and were receiving care, he said, adding that many people had been crushed or suffocated and that a number of women had been raped.

In the early hours of Tuesday, gunshots rang out again in the neighbourhood, several witnesses said.

"I heard the gunshots around 5:00 am," Sacre, a taxi driver who did not want to give his surname, told AFP.

He also said that the streets in the area were unusually calm with police and soldiers on patrol, AFP journalists saw.

Daddi Soso, an electrician in his forties, said he had seen security force vehicles taking bodies away in the early hours of Monday. Police cordoned off the streets leading to the prison.