5 Convicts Die in Protest Fire
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MELBOURNE, Australia — Five convicts were killed today in a prison fire started by inmates apparently protesting the admission of two AIDS patients to the jail’s high security area. A spokesman for Pentridge Jail said three of the dead were convicted murderers. Nine other convicts were in serious condition suffering from severe smoke inhalation.
A prison official said the fire began in the maximum-security area where inmates, apparently protesting the transfer of two prisoners with AIDS to the area, set fire to mattresses and bedding and locked themselves in a room.
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