Crime & Justice

At least 41 inmates killed in Jakarta prison fire

Jakarta, Sep 8 (EFE).- At least 41 prisoners died and others were injured Wednesday following a fire in Indonesia’s overcrowded Tangerang prison, according to officials.

Prison officials said in a statement that the fire in the Jakarta prison supposedly started at dawn as a result of a short circuit in the penitentiary’s Block C, which housed drug crime inmates and had at least 122 people.

Firefighters and emergency teams extinguished the fire about an hour and a half after the blaze began, officials said.

Rika Aprianti, the Justice Ministry’s Corrections Department spokeswoman, confirmed the death toll in a press conference, adding that victims were still being rescued and that an investigation into the fire had been opened.

According to the government’s latest official data, more than 2,000 prisoners are held in Tangerang Prison, a prison population that exceeds the maximum capacity of 600 inmates in the compound by more than 245 percent. EFE

sh-nc/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button