COMAYAGUA, Feb 15 – At least 200 inmates were killed and dozens injured when fire tore through a prison in central Honduras, the Central American country’s prisons director said Wednesday.
“We are pulling out bodies, and we have reached 200. The situation is serious. Most have suffocated,” prisons director Danilo Orellana told AFP, adding that the fire did not appear to have been caused by a riot.
The blaze was believed to have broken out around 10:50 pm Tuesday (0450 GMT Wednesday), Orellana said, adding that investigators were looking into whether it was caused by an inmate or by a short circuit.
The prison held around 850 prisoners.
Latin American prisons are notoriously overcrowded, particularly in poor Central American states like Honduras, which are gripped by gang violence and drug trafficking.
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