Dozens die in fire at prison

AT least 41 inmates, two of them foreigners, have died and 80 others have been injured following a fire at an overcrowded prison in Indonesia.

Firefighters worked throughout the early hours of Wednesday to extinguish the flames as black smoke billowed from the compound of the Tangerang prison on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Jakarta.

Ambulances filled with body bags were driven from the prison to a nearby hospital morgue after the fire was put out.

Most of the 41 people killed were drug convicts.

The cause of the fire appears to have been an electrical short circuit, according to initial findings, Jakarta police chief Fadil Imran said.