A fire in an Indonesian prison has killed at least 41 inmates and injured 80 others

- Most of those killed were serving sentences in drug trafficking cases

Jakarta: A fire broke out in a jail near Pangar, Indonesia, early Wednesday morning, killing at least 21 inmates and leaving at least 50 others burnt. Among the prisoners killed in the fire were two foreigners who were serving prison sentences for drug trafficking.

Television footage showed firefighters working tirelessly to extinguish the blaze, as well as clouds of black smoke rising from the prison premises. Activists and staff of the Indonesian Red Cross Society rushed the burnt prisoners to the hospital in an ambulance. TV footage also showed a dozen corpses burning in an orange bag in a room at Tangereng Prison outside Jakarta.

Most of the prisoners killed in the fire were serving prison sentences for drug trafficking, including a foreign prisoner from South Africa and a foreign prisoner from Portugal. However, the dead included prisoners serving sentences in terrorism cases and those serving sentences in murder cases, Indonesia's Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yasona Laoli told reporters. He sent condolences to the families of the prisoners killed in the tragedy and assured them of providing the best treatment to the injured.

"This is a tragedy that has made us all very sad, and we are in close contact with all concerned to find out the cause of the fire," Laoli said. The fire, which broke out at 1.3 pm on Wednesday night, was believed to have been caused by a shot circuit in one of the 12 cells in Block-C-3 of the jail, Jakarta police chief Fadil Imran said. He added that the C-3 block of the jail was crowded with 18 inmates.

After the fire was brought under control, the authorities cordoned off the entire jail with police and military personnel so that no prisoner could escape outside the jail, Imran said. Stating that the situation is now under control, Imran added that 21 prisoners were killed and 20 others were injured in the accident.