Fire in overcrowded Jakarta prison: at least 40 dead | Abroad

The fire broke out in Block C of the complex, which housed inmates for drug-related crimes, and had a capacity of 122 people, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s prison division said. She did not say how many people were in the block when the fire broke out. The prison as a whole was overcrowded, the complex housed more than 2000 inmates, while the capacity was only 600.

According to local police, all the fatalities were prisoners. At least 80 people were also injured in the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, the spokeswoman said. It is known that the fire broke out between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. (local time).

The juvenile detention center is located in Tangerang, in the Indonesian province of Banten, about twenty kilometers outside of Jakarta.

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