Ten inmates have been killed and 38 injured when an inferno ripped through a Colombian jail during the deadliest violence to rock the country's overcrowded prison system in more than decade, officials said.
The blaze broke out late Monday at a prison in the northern city of Barranquilla after inmates set fire to mattresses during a fight.
Of the 38 injured, 12 have already been released from hospital but two remain in critical condition in intensive care, authorities said.
The killer blaze drew fresh attention to the chronic overcrowding in Colombia's jails, where many facilities house several times their capacity.
The jail damaged by Monday's fire was built for 275 inmates but housed 1044.
Hours before the fire, a search had turned up "large quantities of narcotics, weapons and cell phones," General Saul Torres, director of Colombia's prison authority, told Caracol radio.
He explained that the search "apparently led to a rift between some of the inmates, and the guards released gas. Prisoners continued with the dispute and set fire to mattresses."
Ombudsman Jorge Otalora said "this was one of the hypotheses," and that his office would submit a report on what happened.
In a telephone interview with Caracol Radio, one inmate called the incident "a slaughter."
"There was negligence by guards who didn't open doors to exit the hallway," the inmate, identified as Rodrigo, said.
This was denied by Torres, who said prisoners "could not evacuate quickly enough even though the doors were opened."
"Due to the quantity of people, there was large congestion and some people suffered burns," he said.
The killer blaze is the worst example of violence inside a Colombian jail since April 2000, when 25 prisoners lost their lives during rioting at Bogota's notorious high-security La Modelo jail.
According to prison authorities, Colombia's 142 prisons have the capacity to hold 75,726 prisoners, but currently house some 116,370 inmates.
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