Dozens feared dead in Honduras prison fire

Dozens of inmates were killed last night as fire swept through a prison in Honduras, Central America.

One local radio station said the inferno, in the town of Comayagua, had claimed more than 200 lives.

The head of the national prison system, Danilo Orellana, said officials had two theories as to the cause of the blaze: that it was triggered by rioting prisoners or by an electrical short-circuit.

The facility held at least 800 inmates and is located 140km north of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

A spokesman for the government's security secretariat said it was feared that many inmates escaped during the blaze.

Radio reports from Comayagua said dozens of prisoners were burned beyond recognition as they were trapped in their cells. The reports said the prison was destroyed by the flames.

Radio Globo, a station in Comayagua, said the death toll exceeded 200, but Honduran authorities would neither confirm nor deny this number.

The BBC Online said some survivors escaped the blaze by breaking through the roof and jumping from the building.

Local hospitals were treating dozens of people for burns and other injuries, a firefighters' spokesman told the Spanish news agency Efe.

Some of the injured had been taken to the capital, Tegucigalpa, for treatment.

- Agencies