At least 41 women have died during a riot at a prison in the town of Tamara, some 50 kilometres northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa.
Yuri Mora, the Honduras police spokesperson, said the cause of the Tuesday riot wasn’t immediately clear.
Mora told AP news agency that most of the victims suffered burn wounds, though there were reports that some of them were fatally shot.
Other officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said gang control inside the women’s prison might have triggered the melee.
At least seven of the victims were taken to a hospital in Tegucigalpa with gunshot and knife wounds, AP reports.
Julissa Villanueva, the head of the Honduras prison system, said they were planning to crack down on “illicit activities” inside the prison before the riot broke out.
