SAUDI ARABIA: A fire killed 67 inmates at a prison in the Saudi capital of Riyadh yesterday.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the head of prison affairs at the interior ministry as saying 20 inmates and three security guards were also injured in the blaze which broke out at around noon (0900 GMT).
It did not say if the fire was caused by sabotage.
It was not immediately known if the prison housed any of the more than 200 Islamic militants arrested in recent months in a nationwide hunt for supporters of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
"It is too early to tell whether the fire is an act of sabotage, but an investigation is going on," a Saudi security source told Reuters in Dubai.
SPA said firemen and rescuers were trying to put out the blaze, and the Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, had ordered a committee to be set up to investigate the cause of the fire.
Saudi Arabia intensified its campaign against militants after May bombings in Riyadh that killed 35 people, including nine Americans.
The manhunt has led to several bloody clashes with militants, and the seizure of large arm caches.
The United States has stepped up its pressure on its key regional ally to crack down on militants and reform its powerful religious establishment, which the West says breeds hatred towards Christians and Jews.
In March last year, 15 schoolgirls died and at least 50 were injured in a stampede after fire broke out at their secondary school in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
The disaster caused uproar in the kingdom, students' relatives blaming the education ministry for inadequate safety procedures and overcrowding.
Saudi newspapers said that all the casualties occurred in the rush to get out of the three-storey building, some girls throwing themselves out of windows while others were trampled to death on the stairs.