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15 Feb 2012 20:00

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World: Prison fire in Honduras leads to terrible death toll

  • 359 inmates killed during a huge fire at a prison in Honduras source
  • » Crowded chaos: The fire started yesterday night at the prison in Comayagua, with authorities believing, by another prisoner’s report, that an inmate started the blaze by igniting their mattress. Honduras is a state plagued by high rates of crime (the United Nations says it has the world’s highest murder rate), which has caused its prisons to be absurdly overstuffed, and many are old and dilapidated. Angry relatives of the inmates gathered outside the prison this morning, protesting and at times trying to force their way in; police responded by firing tear gas. President Porfirio Lobo pledged to “take urgent measures to deal with this tragedy, which has plunged all Hondurans into mourning.”