A fire swept through a Honduran prison killing at least 272 inmates, officials said yesterday, warning the toll could rise with many inmates left trapped in their cells by the fierce inferno.

Survivors described wrenching scenes of inmates clutching each other in desperation while being engulfed by choking smoke and flames, in what is the world’s deadliest prison blaze in a decade.

“They tried to save themselves by hurling themselves into the shower, sinks” and any other source of water they could find, one survivor said.

“We are pulling out bodies,” said prison director Danilo Orellana. “The situation is serious. Most have asphyxiated.”

Witnesses said some of the inmates escaped by jumping from the prison rooftop, and there were reports that some had fled the crowded facility and were on the loose.

Officials were unclear about the cause, at first surmising that the blaze was sparked by a short circuit. But later they did not rule that the fire might have been deliberately set by inmates.

The inferno broke out at around 10.50 p.m. on Tuesday (0450 GMT yesterday), and took about three hours to bring under control.

Hundreds of distraught relatives who gathered outside the jail – frustrated at being left in the dark about the fate of their loved ones – clashed with police and then stormed the prison gates early yesterday.

Some 300 men, women and children rushed through the gates of the prison in the central town of Comayagua when police withdrew in face of the crowd.

President Porfirio Lobo announced he was suspending the officials who ran the prison while an investigation was underway into what caused the blaze, which he called “a lamentable and unacceptable tragedy.”