A fight between rival gangs led to a fire that swept through a Dominican Republic prison on Monday, killing 133 inmates in the deadliest incident in the history of the Caribbean country's prisons, officials said. Efforts to rescue the prisoners from the blaze at the prison in the eastern city of Higuey were hampered by a broken lock, officials said. By midday, some 133 bodies had been counted and about 25 people were injured, said a spokeswoman for the Civil Defence department.
Rival gangs fighting for control of the prison attacked each other with guns and knives late on Sunday, officials said. The blaze broke out early on Monday as prisoners set fire to their bedding.
Prison guards said they tried to open the cellblock where the fire was raging but prisoners had damaged the lock, prisons director Juan Ramon De la Cruz Martinez said.
By midday, rescue workers were still bringing out bodies from the prison. Dozens of people gathered nearby, hoping for news of their relatives.
Police Chief Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez ordered the arrest of the prison's security chief.
Monday's disaster was the worst in the history of prisons in the Dominican Republic, where prisons are often overcrowded. Twenty-nine inmates were killed in a riot and fire at a prison in the city of La Vega in September 2002.
The US State Department, which issued its annual report on human rights around the world last week, said prison conditions in the Dominican Republic range from "poor to harsh."
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