2 inmates killed, 6 injured in Uruguayan prison fire

New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS) At least two inmates were killed and six others injured after prisoners started a fire Thursday night in a cell in Uruguay's Comcar prison, the Interior Ministry said.

The fire broke out when inmates threw flammable liquid through a window of a cell at Comcar, whose official name is Unit 4 Santiago Vazquez, Xinhua news agency.

Luis Mendoza, director of the National Rehabilitation Institute, said at a press conference on Friday that it was a "specific incident" and "not a riot."

Mendoza confirmed that the bodies of the deceased were found in the cell, which held eight inmates, while the injured were hospitalized, four of them with serious burns.

Comcar houses 4,900 inmates, almost a third of the country's prison population, according to figures from the parliamentary commissioner of the penitentiary system.

The Interior Ministry announced that with the creation of almost 4,000 prison spots by the end of the current government in 2025, overcrowding, which affects some 2,500 inmates, will be overcome.

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