Fire guts crowded Cameroon prison in Douala

A fire tore through an overcrowded maximum security prison in Cameroon's port city of Douala on Thursday leading to the hospitalisation of three prisoners with serious burns, a local fire chief said.

Firefighters backed up by police were able to contain the blaze and stop it spreading beyond New Bell jail, which sits in a densely populated neighbourhood of the commercial capital, close to the central market.

"The operation was made more difficult by the layout and the large number of inmates," fire brigade chief Kadrey Abdiel said.