E-Paper
Honduras fire: dead pile up
Police and soldiers dragged out the charred remains of convicts in black body bags, hurling them onto a pile outside a Honduran prison where over 350 people died on Tuesday night, choking and screaming as they were engulfed in flames.
Police and soldiers dragged out the charred remains of convicts in black body bags, hurling them onto a pile outside a Honduran prison where over 350 people died on Tuesday night, choking and screaming as they were engulfed in flames.
As the darkness deepened in Comayagua National Penitentiary, north of the capital Tegucigalpa, the last remaining bereaved family members melted away.
But groups of workers continued to stack up bodies, which landed with heavy thuds.
"The corpses are charred and some of them are stuck on top of each other," said Johnny Ordenez, a Honduran soldier lugging the dead.
"You have to peel them apart like an orange."
Hondurans already live in the most murderous country on the planet, according to a UN report. But the Comayagua fire, apparently started by a prisoner, was the worst anywhere.
