HIGUEY, Dominican Republic (AP) – Rival gangs fighting to control the drug trade in a provincial Dominican prison set pillows and mattresses ablaze and blocked the entrance to their cell-block, killing at least 133 inmates, officials said.

Some died in a stampede to escape after guards forced open the jammed door to the cell-block called Vietnam, one survivor said.

It was one of the deadliest prison fires in Latin America in decades and the worst ever in the Dominican Republic, where the US State Department claims that some overcrowded and bug-infested jails are run by armed inmates.

Only 26 prisoners were rescued from the public jail in Higuey, 75 miles (120 kilometres) northeast of the capital on eastern tip of the island, said National Police Chief Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez.

He said four suffered bullet wounds, but had no details.

Firefighter chief Nestor Vera said three gangs, battling over who would sell drugs and cigarettes, had blocked the entrance to the cell-block in order to fight it out, before some started the fire.

“It’s an incredible, mad thing,” Vera said. “When we arrived, the door was blocked with the rubble from mattresses and wood beds the prisoners had used to seal the exit shut.” They also damaged the padlock, he said, preventing a swift rescue.

Bodies were “piled up on top of each other” at the door, he said, apparently as the men struggled to escape.

Rescuers pulled 133 bodies from the block, Perez Sanchez said. Many were charred, but many died from inhaling smoke, Vera said.

One of the few to escape, Alexander Sanchez, said police fired tear gas before the fire was started, and that some inmates died in a stampede to get out.

“When they finally opened the door, we all tried to get out but we didn’t all make it, some got trampled to death,” said Sanchez, 28, who has been waiting in jail two years to be tried for beating up a man in a dispute over a woman.

Outside the jail, scores of people gathered.

“I just want to find out if he’s still alive,” Porfirio Rodriguez, 52, said of his son, Ramon, who was convicted of smuggling migrants to the neighbouring US territory of Puerto Rico.

Police directed him to a photocopy shop opposite the jail, where people paid 24 pesos (nearly US$1) for the list of victims. Rodriguez bought his and walked away to read it in private. His son was listed among the dead.

Vice President Rafael Alburquerque came to Higuey to express his “real consternation” at the “lamentable tragedy” and to tell people of the “profound dismay” suffered by President Leonel Fernandez, who is on an official visit to Spain.

Alburquerque said a government commission would investigate the events.

The violence began when one inmate shot and wounded a rival gang member Sunday night and dozens began fighting for control of trade with prisoners, said national prison director Gen Ramon de la Cruz Martinez.

Guards broke up that fight.

But about 12:30 am prisoners began rioting, setting fire to pillows and sheets, Diaz said.

Nineteen people were listed as injured, and many were ferried by army helicopters to hospitals in the capital, Santo Domingo, among them Jose Pichard Silverio, who suffered minor burns to his arms and face.

“The problem began because there were two Higuey people who wanted to control the prison and were extorting 1,000 pesos (US$25) from each of us,” Pichardo Silverio said from a corridor of Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital, where he waited to be treated.

Also among victims were four Americans from Puerto Rico convicted of cocaine trafficking along with television personality Laura Hernandez. Two died and two were wounded, officials said.

Earlier, officials had said there were 148 prisoners in the cell-block, though the combined toll of dead and injured totaled 159. Later, they said there were 182 prisoners.

The discrepancy was an indicator of prison conditions in the Dominican Republic, which has the most overcrowded jails in the Western Hemisphere, according to United Nations figures, leading a list of places where inmate populations have grown far beyond capacity while penitentiaries crumble from neglect.

The Dominican Republic’s 35 prisons were built for 9,000 prisoners but last year held more than 13,500, according to the US State Department human rights report published last week.