A fire broke out at a prison in Indonesia’s Banten province,
killing nearly 40 people, Rika Aprianti, a spokesperson for the prison
department of the law and human rights ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. She
said that the fire broke out between 1 and 2 am, authorities are evacuating the
jail and the cause of fire is under investigation.  

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The fire broke out at the Tangreng Prison Block C and has been extinguished, the official spokesperson said. The inmates of the prison were being held for drug-related offences. The jail had a capacity of 122 people. While the prison department spokesperson did not say the number of people present in the prison when the fire broke out, she confirmed that the jail was overcrowded. 

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Tangrang, the place where the prison is located, is an industrial and manufacturing hub near Indonesian capital Jakarta. According to government data released earlier this month, the prison housed more than 2,000 inmates, way above its capacity of 600. 

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Local TV media showed visuals of fire service personnel trying to put out the huge flames emanating from the top of the building. Media reports suggest that eight people were seriously injured in the fire aside from the 41 dead. 

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“The initial suspicion is that this was because of an electrical short circuit,” a police spokesperson told a local media network. Police said 73 people had suffered minor injuries.