At least 15 injured in a gas leak explosion in a Bolivian prison

At least 15 people were injured this Sunday after an explosion caused by a gas leak that occurred in a prison in the Bolivian region of Cochabamba, in the center of the country.

The event occurred in a section of the Cochabamba prison in San Sebastián where inmates usually prepare food to receive visits from their relatives on Sundays, the director of the Cochabamba Penitentiary Regime, Estrella Rocha, explained to the media.

"According to the preliminary report, apparently it would have been a fortuitous accident where when changing the bottle there was a leak." of gas for a "bad procedure"which led to the explosion, said the official.

Fifteen inmates who suffered burns and other injuries were transferred to different health centers, eight of them to the Viedma Hospital, where they receive care.

the wounded "they are stable" and the Penitentiary Regime awaits the medical reports to see which inmates must remain hospitalized and who will be able to return to the prison on the same day, Rocha said.

Most of the inmates affected by the explosion suffered first and second degree burns in different parts of the body and two were poisoned by carbon monoxide inhalation, according to a report given by the Fire Department.

After the fact, it was decided to suspend visits for this day in the affected prison.

Bolivia’s prisons present problems of overcrowding and conflict, due, among other factors, to the fact that at least seven of each inmate are in preventive detention without sentence and their cases suffer from a chronic backlog.

The recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Diego García-Sayán, regarding Bolivia mentioned that as of March 2021, in Bolivian prisons there were some 18,703 inmates compared to a capacity of 5,346. people, with an overcrowding rate of 349.8%.

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