26 Inmates Killed During Blaze at Venezuelan Prison

Flames consumed a cell in an overcrowded downtown prison early Tuesday, killing at least 26 inmates. It was unclear whether guards or prisoners started the fire.

Three guards were detained for questioning after Director of Prisons Antonio Marval said the blaze had been sparked by tear gas canisters that guards threw into the cell. Marval said the three guards had “savagely attacked the prisoners.”

Marval said guards used the tear gas to put down a riot in the cellblock, which houses 60 inmates in two cells. Prisoners, however, denied having rioted.

Jose Alberto Mejias, 31, one of five inmates who escaped from the cell, said guards locked them in the cell after roll call and fired tear gas canisters without provocation. The canisters produced sparks and “everything caught fire,” he said.

Prisoners tried to extinguish the fire with a thin hose connected to a small water tank but water pressure was too weak, he said.

A lawyer with the attorney general’s office gave yet another version of events, saying prisoners told him that they had set their own mattresses on fire.