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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Inmates Trapped in Blazing Honduran Prison Say Guards Shot At Them

Comayagua, Honduras - Charred bodies of inmates remained in the burned hulk of the Comayagua National Penitentiary on Wednesday night, nearly 24 hours after an inmate apparently set a mattress ablaze and triggered a conflagration that left as many as 350 prisoners dead.

The fire, which started at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday at the prison, took firefighters three hours to douse. Guards fired their guns repeatedly to keep screaming trapped inmates from escaping.

“It is a day of deep pain for Honduras,” President Porfirio Lobo said in a brief televised address, acknowledging that a criminal hand may have been behind the disaster.

“We will conduct an investigation to determine what provoked this lamentable and unacceptable tragedy and find those responsible,” Lobo said.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So which is it? The guards ran away, or the guards shot at them?

lastword said...

Why can't it be both?

lmclain said...

Find those responsible? Did they lose the list of employees? You know, the ones who fired their guns to make sure the inmates were burned alive? Got 5 years for burglary, death for trying to escape a fire....