Prison fire relatives storm morgue

Relatives of inmates killed in the Honduras prison fire last week push down the fence to a makeshift morgue.

Soldiers guarding the morgue are unable to hold back the grief-stricken crowd, and can only watch as people force open a trailer to discover dozens of body bags inside.

With no morgue large enough to accommodate the hundreds of corpses, body bags have been dumped on the back of trucks, and litter the ground at the site.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED RELATIVE OF INMATE SAYING:

"They are rotting. With no cool room how are they going to return the bodies. My brother is already dead, return him, they've already killed him."

Authorities say at least 357 people died in the blaze that began late on Tuesday February 14 at a prison some 75 kilometres north of Tegucigalpa.

Local radio reports said many inmates were burned to death in their cells.

Distraught and angry relatives were in shock at the condition of the corpses and how they were being stored.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED RELATIVE OF INMATE SAYING:

"Look how they left them, just like dogs."

The prison housed more than 850 inmates - well above its capacity.

Nick Rowlands, Reuters.