AP

Forensic workers zip open a body bag on the patio inside the morgue in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Relatives of inmates who perished in a fire last week that left 360 dead in a Honduras prison demanded a new investigation on Wednesday to confirm a report from US experts who said the blaze was accidental.

“It's not 100 percent ruled out that there was a criminal hand,” Gloria Redondo, spokeswoman for the families of deceased inmates, told AFP.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which the Honduran government asked to lead an investigation into the cause of the February 14 fire, said a cigarette was a possible source of the fire.

An ATF team issued a statement after inspecting Comayagua National Penitentiary that said, “The cause of the fire is believed to have been an open flame (the source of which could include, but is not limited to, a cigarette, a lighter, matches, etc.), although the actual ignition source was not recovered.”

The ATF's international response team “was able to rule out other possible causes of the fire, such as a lightning strike, electrical causes or the use of a flammable or combustible liquid,” the statement said.

Some relatives of inmates who died in the fire said after seeing their bodies on Monday that they saw bullet holes in them, according to the co-ordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Victims of the Comayagua National Penitentiary.

He said there should be a follow-up investigation of the reports.

The Honduran government is denying any prisoners were shot.

The reports surfaced after dozens of relatives broke through police barriers to open body bags that had been placed in the street in front of the morgue near the penitentiary, 90 miles north of Tegucigalpa. They said they had become frustrated by the slow return of their relatives' bodies.

Several relatives fainted while others shouted that they found bullet holes.

Meanwhile, Honduran security minister Pompeyo Bonilla told a local radio station that the ATF report brought “calm” to the situation.

He called the ATF report on the cause of the fire “preliminary” but added that it could become “definitive.”

The February 14 fire in Honduras, along with recent mass murders of prisoners in Mexico, prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to issue statements reminding governments of their obligation to ensure prison security.

The Commission “reiterates that states, as guarantors of the rights of the persons deprived of liberty, must adopt all necessary measures to protect the life and personal integrity of the inmates,” the statement on Wednesday said.

The Commission regularly reviews the status of human rights at Latin American prisons.

Its statement condemned the killing of 44 inmates at Mexico's Apodaca prison by rival gang members on Sunday. The Commission mentioned a January 4 fight at a Mexican prison in Altamira that left 30 inmates dead as another failure to protect prisoners.

“Proper control by the authorities of internal order inside prisons is an essential assumption in order to guarantee the human rights of persons deprived of liberty,” said the statement from the IACHR, an agency of the Organization of American States. - Sapa-AFP