A fire breaks out in an overcrowded Indonesian prison, killing 41 people

An overcrowded Indonesian prison block caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday (Sept ???? while most inmates were sleeping, killing 41 people and wounding scores more, according to an official.

Tangerang Prison Block C, which held detainees imprisoned on narcotics charges, caught fire between 1 and 2 a.m. in Banten province.
Around 3 a.m., it was put out.

A big fire raged across the prison block, with thick smoke rising from the facility as firefighters tried to put out the flames, according to television footage.

"Forty people perished on the spot, and one died on his way to the hospital," Indonesia's justice minister, Yasonna Laoly, said, adding that eight others were critically hurt and 31 received minor injuries.

Fadil Imran, the Jakarta police commander, had earlier told the media that 72 people had suffered minor injuries.

The cause of the event at Tangerang Penitentiary, close outside Jakarta, was still being investigated, although authorities assumed an electrical failure was to blame.

"I've examined the situation.
It is likely that (the fire) was caused by a short circuit, based on early observations "Imran expressed his thoughts.

The prison's electrical system, according to Laoly, has not been improved since it was erected in 1972, more than 40 years ago.

"There was no time to open several cells as the fire spread swiftly...
The fire had already spread when the guards discovered it, and that's where we discovered the victims "Laoly went on to say.

According to government records as of September, the jail in Tangerang, an industrial and manufacturing area outside Jakarta, housed just over 2,000 detainees, well beyond its capacity of 600.

According to Rika Aprianti, a spokesperson for the correctional directorate general, the block where the fire broke out had a maximum capacity of 40 inmates but contained 120.