Fire kills 68 as riot breaks out in Venezuelan police cells

NEARLY 70 people have died in an attempted jailbreak in Venezuela, after a fire engulfed police holding cells.

Tarek William Saab, the country’s attorney general, gave the death toll as 68 following the pre-dawn incident on Wednesday at a police headquarters in northern Carabobo state. He added that the fire was thought to have been started deliberately.

Carlos Nieto, head of a Venezuelan prisoners’ rights group, said that some prisoners burned to death and others choked after setting fire to mattresses and stealing a guard’s gun in an attempted breakout. The dead included two women who were visiting the jail.

One of the worst tragedies in recent years within the notoriously violent and overcrowded prison system in Venezuela unfolded when relatives of those held in the detention centre tried to force their way in.

A video posted online showed dozens of people demanding information at the site. Women were seen crying. “I am a desperate mother. My son has been here a week. They have not given us any information,” Dora Blanco told local media. They were dispersed using tear gas after an officer was injured by a flying stone.

Venezuela’s prisons suffer from dire overcrowding and a shortage of basic supplies, struggling under a deepening economic crisis that has gripped the once-wealthy oil-producing country. Mr Nieto claimed the detention centres were at five times their capacity.

The United Nations human rights office yesterday called on authorities to carry out a speedy investigation.

“We urge an investigation to establish the cause of these deaths, provide reparations to the victims’ families and identify and bring those responsible to justice,” a UN spokesman said.