Thirteen prisoners have died and
five others have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out in a prison in
southeast Turkey, officials said.
The victims suffocated after inmates
set bedding alight at the jail in Sanliurfa province.
The fire was brought under control
before it spread to the rest of the jail, which houses about 1,000 inmates.
Turkish media said the blaze took
place during a mutiny, but the local governor denied the claim.
Governor Celalettin Guvenc told
Reuters that the blaze took place following a row between the inmates.
It took one-and-a-half hours before
the blaze was extinguised, the news agency reports.
Those detained at Sanliurfa include
political prisoners, reports say.
Ibrahim Ayhan, a member of
parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), was among
those in the jail but was not believed to have been harmed, broadcaster NTV
said.