At least 272 inmates killed in Honduras prison fire

Feb 15, 2012, 16:22 GMT

Tegucigalpa - A total of 272 bodies have been recovered after a fire at a prison in Honduras, Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said Wednesday, adding that the death toll was likely to cross 300.

The El Heraldo and La Prensa newspapers quoted forensic experts as saying that the number of dead could exceed 350.

Most of the victims suffocated to death in the fire, which broke out late Tuesday at the prison in Comayagua, a town of 60,000 people located 100 kilometres north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Police initially focused their investigation on a possible electrical problem. However, police spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia said it seemed more likely that the fire was 'intentional' and caused by a man believed to have escaped.

Mejia declined to give further details. Earlier reports blamed the fire on a prison mutiny.

A report by the national human rights commissioner, Ramon Custodio, and cited by Honduran radio station HRN put the number of dead at 356. However, it said the figure was unofficial and arrived at by subtracting the figure of prisoners rescued from police data on the number of inmates.

Both Custodio and Honduran police feared that many inmates may have fled the prison in the ensuing confusion.

Identifying the dead was expected to take several days.

There were 820 inmates in the prison, Mejia said, although the facility had a capacity for only 450. He added that 500 inmates were reported to be safe, while scores more were injured and admitted to hospitals.

The fire spread through the building, half of which was gutted, while the rest was at risk of collapse once the blaze was brought under control.

The inmates accused prison officials of not opening cell doors and gates despite the fire and their cries for help.

'We were burning to death, we were panicking, particularly since they would not open the cells,' an inmate who identified himself as Tiberio told media from a Tegucigalpa hospital.

Thousands of relatives of inmates rallied outside the jail as they waited for information.

The jail in Comayagua functioned as a penitentiary farm. During the day, inmates worked the fields, grew vegetables and reared pigs, among other activities, while at night they were held in cells.

The jail is regarded as a medium-security prison, and none of the inmates was considered dangerous.

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

President Porfirio Lobo was expected to address the nation later Wednesday.