Dozens killed in fire at overcrowded Indonesian prison: official | Al Jazeera

A fire tore through an overcrowded block in a jail in Indonesia’s western Banten province, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens, a government spokeswoman and media reports said.

The fire, which broke out between 1 to 2am local time (18 to 19:00 GMT) on Wednesday at the Tangerang Prison Block C, has been extinguished and authorities are still evacuating the facility, said Rika Aprianti, a spokeswoman of the corrections department of the law and human rights ministry.

“The cause is under investigation,” she said.

Investigators from the fire department said that they are also looking at the defective electrical wiring as a source of the fire.

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