270 inmates killed in Honduras prison fire

Feb 15, 2012, 12:44 GMT

Tegucigalpa - At least 270 prisoners were killed in a fire at a prison in Honduras, officials in the Central American country said Wednesday.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday at a prison in Comayagua, a town of some 60,000 people that lies 100 kilometres north of the capital Tegucigalpa, according to the Public Security Ministry. It said the cause of the blaze was still not known.

National Director of Forensic Medicine Lucy Marder told Honduran radio that 272 people had died in the fire. Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said 'more than 200' were dead and that it was too early to give a final count.

The Honduran daily El Heraldo cited forensic experts as saying that the number of dead could exceed 350. Most of the victims suffocated in the fire.

There were 820 inmates in the prison when the fire broke out, police spokesman Hactor Ivan Mejia said. He added that 500 of them were reported to be safe. Dozens more were injured and admitted to hospitals. Some inmates are believed to have fled.

The authorities contradicted early reports that blamed the fire on a mutiny. They were focusing their investigation on a possible electrical problem.

In 2004, 107 inmates in a prison in the north-western city of San Pedro Sula died in a fire that was caused by an electrical short-circuit.