TEGUCIGALPA, May 17: A huge fire at a prison in northern Honduras killed 102 inmates on Monday, all of them members of a violent street gang the government is trying to break up.
Police spokesman Wilmer Torres said the early-morning fire at the prison in the northern city of San Pedro Sula followed an explosion that was apparently caused by a short circuit.
Most of the victims died from suffocation and another 27 were taken to the hospital with burns. It was the worst jail disaster in Honduras and the second time that dozens of gang members have been killed inside a Honduran prison in a little over a year.
Some inmates complained that security forces were slow to help on Monday and some family members suspected it was no accident. "We are investigating this very carefully to determine the precise causes," Torres told Reuters.
He said all of the dead were members of the "Mara Salvatrucha", one of two dominant street gangs that operate in this Central American country. The gangs have been the target of a major crackdown in which more than 1,000 suspected gang members have been arrested and sent to jail since last August.
Although there was little specific information about the fire victims, many gang members have been convicted on charges of murder, drug smuggling or robbery. They are often housed together in prisons because of frequent clashes with other groups of inmates.
One of the members who survived said guards at the prison were extremely slow to help the inmates. Family members gathered outside the prison and some suspected foul play.
"Why was the fire only in the area of the gang members? Why wasn't it in another area where the other prisoners are? The same thing happened in La Ceiba," said Sara Gomez, the mother of a Mara Salvatrucha member. -Reuters
