Fire at overcrowded Indonesian prison kills at least 41 people, injures 80
- The prison housed more than 2,000 inmates, far more than its capacity of 600 people, according to government data
- Prisons in Indonesia are notoriously overcrowded, partly due to the emphasis on incarceration for drug-related offences
The fire, the country’s most deadly since 47 perished in a firework factory disaster in 2017, broke out at 1.45am in a Tangerang Prison block, Indonesian law and human rights minister Yasonna Laoly said after visiting the scene.
“We’re working together with relevant authorities to look into the causes of the fire and of course formulating prevention strategies so that severe catastrophes like this won’t happen again,” the minister said in a statement.
“This is a tragedy that concerns all of us,” Laoly later told reporters. “We are working closely with all relevant parties to investigate the causes of the fire.”
02:44
Fire at overcrowded prison in Indonesia kills at least 41, injures 80
The minister said two of the dead were foreign nationals serving drug sentences, one each from South Africa and Portugal, and confirmed the prison was operating in overcapacity when the fire broke out. Cells were locked at the time, the minister said, but with the fire raging uncontrollably, “some rooms couldn’t be opened”.