By IANS
Rio de Janeiro : Eight inmates have been killed in a fire at a jail in Rio Piracicaba in southeastern Brazil, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Thursday.
The blaze, which was started by a short-circuit Tuesday night in one of the cells, spread quickly all over the jail in Rio Piracicaba, a small city in the interior of Brazil’s Minas Gerais province.
According to the police, the inmates could not get out of their cells because the guard, who was on duty at that time, had left his post.
Police and town residents managed to make a hole in a wall to reach the prisoners, but it was too late to save the lives of eight inmates, who died of suffocation, officials said.
The jail has a capacity of 18 but was holding 22 inmates at the time of the fire.
The prisoners who survived were being held in three cells that were not affected.
The provincial and city governments have announced ex-gratia to the victims’ families and have offered to bear all funeral expenses.