39 dead in fire at Mexico migrant centre near US border

A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention centre near the US border left more than three dozen migrants dead, a government agency said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country.

Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.

Thirty-nine people died and 29 were injured and are in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute.

There were 68 men from Central and South America held in the facility at the time of the fire, the agency said.