A fire that killed at least 358 people at a Honduras prison was started deliberately by one of the inmates, according to a local politician.
Paola Castro, the governor of Comayagua, said: "One inmate got in touch with me just after 11pm to say another inmate had set fire to the prison in block number 6, presumably by setting fire to a mattress."
I only saw flames, and when we got out, they were being burned, up against the bars, they were stuck to them.
She called the Red Cross and the fire brigade after receiving the phone call on Tuesday but they were unable to enter the prison for 30 minutes because guards believed they were dealing with a riot or an attempted breakout.
Survivors told investigators that an unidentified inmate had set fire to his bedding after officials had earlier suggested that it was sparked by a short circuit.
The blaze spread through the locked barracks within minutes.
Inmates described how they climbed walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape, only to see prisoners in other cell blocks being burned alive. Some were found stuck to the prison's metal roofing, their burned bodies fused to the metal.
"I only saw flames, and when we got out, they were being burned, up against the bars, they were stuck to them," said Eladio Chicas, 40, who was in his 15th year of a 39-year sentence.
"It was something horrible," he said. "This is a nightmare."
Honduran forensic workers remove burnt inmates from prison
Inmates were unable to escape as the fire spread through the locked barracks in minutes
In the block where the fire was started only four of the 105 prisoners housed there survived, Supreme Court Justice Richard Ordonez, who is leading the investigation, said.
Inmates' bodies were found piled up in the prison's bathrooms, where they apparently fled to turn on the showers and hope the water would save them from the flames.
Many victims were so charred, officials said they would need to use dental records and DNA to identify them.
The prison in the central town of Comayagua, 53 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa was built in the 1940s for 400 inmates but was packed with more than double that number.
There were only 12 guards on duty when the fire broke out, state prosecutor German Enamorado said.
The prison, which was made up of 12 barrack units, had more than 850 inmates
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said on national television that he had suspended the country's senior penal officials and would request international assistance in carrying out a thorough investigation.
"This is a day of profound sadness," Lobo said.
He promised to "take urgent measures to deal with this tragedy, which has plunged all Hondurans into mourning".
In 2003, a blaze broke out after a riot in another prison in northern Honduras, killing 68.
An investigation found police and prison staff had shot and stabbed inmates in the melee.
The government pledged to improve the system but just a year later more than 100 prisoners were killed in a fire in San Pedro Sula. Survivors of that blaze said guards fired on inmates trying to escape or left them locked up to die.
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