At least 68 people were killed when a fire broke out at a police station in the city of Valencia in Venezuela's Carabobo state, local officials and the state attorney general announced today.
Due to the overcrowding in Venezuela's prisons, security forces are forced to use police stations as centers of long-term detention, while detainees are not legally allowed to remain there for more than 48 hours.
The fire probably broke out when the detainees set fire to their mattresses in an attempt to escape. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, which surrounded the police station when news of the fire broke out.
Carabobo Attorney General Tarek Saab said "four prosecutors have been appointed (…) to investigate what happened."
"According to the first data of the investigation, 66 men lost their lives from the fire as well as two women who had gone to visit the detainees," Saab explained on his Twitter account.
The circumstances of the tragedy have not yet been officially confirmed.
The Una Ventana a la Libertad (Window to Freedom) organization, which records conditions in penitentiaries, reported that a detainee shot a police officer in the leg and that detainees later set fire to their mattresses. The fire spread quickly.
The non-governmental organization spoke of 78 dead, most of them prisoners.
"Some were burned alive and others suffocated," said Carlos Nieto, the NGO's director.
Jes Σs Santander, a state official, said the situation was now under control, although he did not confirm the shooting.
Carabobo Governor Rafael Lakava said he was "shocked", but did not comment on the number of victims.
"A serious and thorough investigation has been launched to determine the causes and those responsible for these tragic events," he said on his Twitter account, expressing his condolences to the relatives of the victims.
Photographs taken by members of the Una Ventana a la Libertad show a charred corpse and firefighters trying to contain the blaze.
After the detainees revolted, their relatives gathered outside the police station and tried to enter it. In the episodes that broke out, a police officer was injured by a stone thrown by the gathered, according to the NGO.
Local media reporters noted that the situation around the police station remained tense and presented a list of 20 victims.
A video posted on Twitter shows dozens of people gathering in front of the police station asking for information about the detainees.
"I am a desperate mother, my son has been there for a week. "They have not given me any information," said Dora Blanco.
Nieto, for his part, complained that the incident "is not isolated" because in all Venezuelan detention centers "there are the same conditions of overcrowding, lack of food or worse."
According to the NGO, 62 detainees and two police officers were killed in 2017 in various violent incidents but also due to illnesses associated with poor detention conditions.