AKIPRESS.COM - A fire broke out in a northern Venezuelan prison, killing 17 people, among them nine prisoners, while another 16 inmates were reported injured, the chief prosecutor's office confirmed Monday.

Eight women and nine men were killed in the fire, which had broken out in the early hours Monday at Tocuyito prison in the state of Carabobo, the Attorney General's office said in a statement, reports Xinhua.

Prosecutors had been appointed to investigate the deaths of the 17 victims, the statement said. Some media reported that an electrical short circuit had caused the fire.

The identities of the dead and wounded are still unknown and the injured were rushed to a hospital nearby, local media said.

The prison was part of a government program in 2014 to recover penitentiaries across the nation and over 2,000 inmates were relocated to prevent overcrowding.

In 2012, then Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez declared an emergency on prison infrastructure and launched a ministry of penitentiary services to build new jails and "humanize" the inmates.

Venezuela's crowded prisons are among Latin America's deadliest and according to local human rights groups, 309 inmates were killed in 2014.