COMAYAGUA, Honduras, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- At least 350 people were killed in a prison fire in Comayagua in central Honduras, officials said Wednesday.
Honduran Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said he thought "more than 300" prisoners were dead as a result of the Tuesday night blaze, McClatchy Newspapers reported. National Prison Director Danilo Orellana told Honduran reporters the death toll had gone past 350.
The country's human rights commissioner, Dr. Ramon Custodio Lopez, issued a statement that said 356 inmates had not responded to roll call following the blaze and one visitor to the prison had not been located. He said the prison was rated for 250 inmates but housed 852.
The exact number of dead had not been ascertained, Lopez said.
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Hospital officials said hundreds of other prisoners were burned or injured when they broke through a roof and jumped to safety, McClatchy reported.
The disaster triggered a confrontation between grieving relatives, who threw rocks, and riot police and soldiers who responded with tear gas, McClatchy said. Gunshots also were heard.
Jose Turcios, a spokesman for the Comayagua fire department, said firefighters brought the blaze under control, CNN reported.
One survivor, an inmate who said his name was Alex, told Honduran media he didn't know how the fire started, but that he and other prisoners and were awakened by other prisoners' screams.
"Everyone ran for their lives," he said, adding that prisoners fled the facility any way possible.
At least 35 prisoners were transported to a local hospital, Turcios said, and some were then transported to a hospital in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
The fire damaged five of the prison's units, Turcios said. The extent of the damage was not reported.
The country's prison commissioner said investigators were looking into whether the fire was caused by a short circuit or if a prisoner possibly set a mattress afire.
Several Honduran media outlets reported the inmates were protesting living conditions when the fire broke out.
"It is a day of deep pain for Honduras," McClatchy quoted President Porfirio Lobo Sosa as saying in a televised address. "We will conduct an investigation to determine what provoked this lamentable and unacceptable tragedy and find those responsible."
The fire was the third fatal prison fire in Honduras in recent years, CNN said. In 2003, 61 prisoners were killed in a fire at a prison in La Ceiba. In 2004, a fire in a San Pedro Sula prison killed 107.
The U.S. State Department published a report in April 2011, critical of conditions in the two dozen prisons in Honduras.
