ASUNCION (AFP) – A shopping centre owner, his son and four guards were indicted for manslaughter after allegedly locking the crowded Asuncion store to prevent theft during a blaze that left 346 people dead, court sources said yesterday.

Juan Pio Paiva, who owned the Yca Bolanos shopping centre, his son Daniel, and four security guards are formally accused of locking the doors “so no one would leave without paying,” the sources said.

The charge sheet claims Daniel Paiva ordered security personnel to shut all exits, and helped them do so, thereby preventing hundreds of clients from fleeing and “causing the death of more than 300 people.”

“Children, women and men were burned to death or asphyxiated, and hundreds more suffered severe burns,” the document said.

Public prosecutor Edgar Sanchez quoted one of the guards as telling investigators he had “heard over internal radio an order to close the exit doors.”

Sanchez and fellow prosecutor Teresa Sosa asked that the six be held in preventive detention and that authorities seize their assets up to a value of US$10 million.

All six were charged with manslaughter.