41 killed in fire at overcrowded Indonesian prison

A fire tore through an overcrowded block in jail in Indonesia’s Banten province in the early hours of Wednesday, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens.

Two foreign nationals were among the inmates killed, the country’s law and human rights minister said.

Minister Yasonna Laoly told a news conference that the foreigners were from South Africa and Portugal.

However, a government spokeswoman and media reports claimed that there were 40 fatalities there.

The fire, which broke out at 1:00 to 2:00 am at the Tangerang Prison Block C, had been extinguished and authorities were still evacuating the facility, said Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman of the prison department of the law and human rights ministry.

The block housed inmates being held for drug-related offenses and had a capacity for 122 people, she said.

She did not say how many people were present when the fire broke out but confirmed the jail was overcrowded.

The cause is under investigation, she said.

The prison in Tangerang, an industrial and manufacturing hub near Jakarta, housed more than 2,000 inmates, far more than its 600 people capacity, according to government data as of September.

ARR