Bogota (colombia): Fire broke out on Tuesday in a prison in southwestern Colombia killing 51 people after one inmate started a fire setting ablaze his mattress.
Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz was quoted as saying fight broke out between two inmates and one of them set fire to his mattress, according to new agency AP.
More than 20 others injured in the fire are getting treated in hospital, reports say.
The director of the national prison system, Tito Castellanos, initially said 49 had died, but the Justice Ministry later raised the toll to 51.
Tito Castellanos linked the fire to an attempted riot at the prison in the city of Tulua.
President Ivan Duque ordered investigations into the cause of the fire.