At least four people died and 61 were injured in the fire at Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday.
According to the judiciary, several detainees started fighting, which caused security and medical personnel to intervene and put an end to the fight. 70 convicts who were trapped in the fire were taken to safety by the security. 10 more people were hospitalised while 51 of the injured received prompt medical attention.
Reports say, the four prisoners who lost their lives to the fire were among those who were imprisoned on the charge of theft.
The situation at the Evin prison returned to normal conditions in the early hours of Sunday and prisoners were allowed to make phone calls with their families.
The state media outlet, in the initial stage, claimed that clashes inside Evin Prison on Saturday have nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country.
It said the ward of prisoners incarcerated on security charges is separate from the ward of bandits and prisoners serving their jail terms on financial charges where the fire incident happened.
The fire comes as Iran continues to be rocked by its most intense unrest in decades. In September, Mahsa Amini died after she was detained by the country’s morality police for apparently not wearing her hijab properly.
Iranian authorities have since unleashed a brutal crackdown on demonstrators, who have united around a range of grievances with the country’s authoritarian regime.
Hundreds of those detained during the protests have reportedly been sent to Evin.
The United States said Iran is fully responsible for the safety of wrongfully detained citizens in Evin Prison.
