Death toll reaches 17 in Georgetown Prison protest fire

The dead prisoners have been identified as Kirk Clarke, Sherwin Trotman, Latchman Partap, Aaron Eastman, Randolph Marques, Hilary Amos, Rohan Teekaram, Anthony Primo, Rayon Paddy, Clifton Joseph, Delroy Williams, Jermain Otto, Shaka McKenzie, Andrew Philander, Chetram Dwarandat, Asraf Mohamed and Richard Hubbard.

Death toll reaches 17 in Georgetown Prison protest fire

Officials of the Guyana Prison Service have updated the figure to 17, as the number of prisoners who died in Thursday’s fiery unrest at the Georgetown Prison.

Families of the dead prisoners have been notified.

The dead prisoners have been identified as Kirk Clarke, Sherwin Trotman, Latchman Partap, Aaron Eastman, Randolph Marques, Hilary Amos, Rohan Teekaram, Anthony Primo, Rayon Paddy, Clifton Joseph, Delroy Williams, Jermain Otto, Shaka McKenzie, Andrew Philander, Chetram Dwarandat, Asraf Mohamed and Richard Hubbard.

Sixteen of the prisoners died at the Camp Street jail while one was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Hospital after being rushed there with burns to over 90% of his body.

All of those who died in the Camp Street jail appeared to have been burnt to death.

Images from within the Camp Street prison paint a picture of the chaos that erupted after the protesting prisoners set fire to mattresses and the building to protest the raid by prison authorities that resulted in the seizure of cellphones, narcotics and other illegal items.

Some of the prisoners appeared to have been trapped by the fire in the grilled area. The bodies of two of the prisoners were badly charred and they may have been identified based on the elimination process.

When the fire broke out, there were 68 prisoners housed in the capital offences section A.

That section of the prison houses high profile prisoners facing murder charges and those committed to stand trial for murders.

Prison Authorities maintain that all efforts were made to extinguish the blaze in the shortest possible time and save lives. However, items were thrown at prison officials during their attempts to move some of the prisoners out early yesterday.

The Government is expected to name a three-man panel to probe the prison tragedy today.

 

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