text: Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station when a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March... (Associated Press) 
   
   Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station when a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in... (Associated Press) 
   
   VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — Distraught families are clamoring for information about detained relatives following a fire that Venezuela's chief prosecutor says killed 68 people when it swept through the cells of the state police station. 
   
   Angry relatives fought with police outside the facility Wednesday after being unable to get any information on casualties from Wednesday's fire, which townspeople said erupted after a disturbance involving detainees. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and local officials would confirm only that there were fatalities. 
   
   Late Wednesday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on his official Twitter account that 68 people were dead and nearly all of them were prisoners. He said the dead included two women who were staying overnight at the station, but he didn't provide any further details. 
   
   Saab said four prosecutors had been named to determine what happened at the state police headquarters in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Caracas. 
   
   It was one of the worst jail disasters in Venezuela, where human rights groups complain about poor conditions in prisons and jails. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994. 
   
   With tears streaking cheeks, people waiting outside the station Wednesday said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions and they feared the worst for their loved ones. 
   
   Some people buried their hands in their faces. Others had to be supported by friends and family as they collapsed in despair. Some wept quietly and clutched their hands in prayer. 
   
   "I don't know if my son is dead or alive!" cried Aida Parra, who said she last saw her son the previous day, when she took food to him. "They haven't told me anything." 
   
   Nearby, National Guard troops wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles slung across their backs walked in and out of the station. Fire trucks and ambulances stood outside. Unused stretchers leaned against a wall. 
   
   A Window to Freedom, a nonprofit group that monitors conditions at Venezuela's jails and prisons, said preliminary but unconfirmed information indicated the riot began when an armed detainee shot an officer in the leg. Shortly after that a fire broke out, with flames growing quickly as the blaze spread to mattresses in the cells, it said. Rescuers apparently had to break a hole through a wall to free some of the prisoners inside. 
   
   Photos shared by the group showed prisoners being taken out on stretchers, their limbs frozen in awkward positions as skin peeled off. 
   
   Carlos Nieto Palma, director of A Window to Freedom, said officials should be held accountable for failing to address the poor conditions in police station jails. The group said overcrowding has become common throughout Venezuela, with detainees being kept long past customary brief holding periods before being let go or sent to larger jails to await trial. 
   
   "It's grave and alarming," Nieto Palma said. "What happened today in Carabobo is a sign of that." 
   
   Opposition lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus demanded that the pro-government leader of Carabobo state inform relatives about what happened. 
   
   "The desperation of relatives should not be played with," he said. 
   
   Clashes between prisoners and guards are not uncommon in Venezuela. Inmates are frequently able to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups control cellblock fiefdoms. ||||| (CNN) Scores of people have died in a blaze that engulfed a jail in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, according to the country's head prosecutor. 
   
   Sixty-eight people died in the fire at a police command and detention center, according to a tweet from head prosecutor Tarek William Saab's official account. 
   
   "We have appointed four prosecutors to clarify these dramatic events," Saab said, adding that 66 of those killed were men and two were women. 
   
   "We will deepen the investigations to immediately clarify these painful events that has dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning," Saab said. 
   
   Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about family members imprisoned at the police station. 
   
   As news filtered out early in the day, angry family members seeking information clashed with police and pushed against a barricade, prompting officers to shoot tear gas at the crowd, according to local media reports. 
   
   Read More ||||| Relatives waiting for news outside a Venezuelan prison where 68 inmates have died in a fire have been tear-gassed by police. 
   
   The blaze started when violence broke out during an attempted breakout at the jail, which is attached to a police station, in the northern city of Valencia. 
   
   Families of the prisoners, who were hoping for news outside the police station, were dispersed with tear gas, while others came up against police officers wielding riot shields. 
   
   Image: Riot police were also scrambled to deal with the crowds 
   
   One woman present outside the jail, Dora Blanco, told local media: "I am a desperate mother. My son has been here a week. They have not given any information." 
   
   Another distraught mother, Aida Parra, said: "I don't know if my son is dead or alive. They haven't told me anything." 
   
   Image: Relatives cried out in anguish outside the prison where 68 inmates died in a fire 
   
   There are reports that a number of people burned to death during the unrest, and a policeman is recovering in a stable condition after being shot in the leg. Another was wounded by a stone that was thrown. 
   
   Firefighters have now extinguished the blaze, which reportedly started when inmates set fire to mattresses. 
   
   Chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab used Twitter to confirm the death toll, which includes two women thought to have been visiting the cells, adding that four prosecutors had been assigned to "clarify these dramatic events". 
   
   Image: Paramedics attend to a relative of one of the inmates after she fainted 
   
   It is the latest deadly incident at one of the country's overcrowded jails, with this prison believed to have a capacity of about 60. 
   
   Rafael Lacava, the governor of Carabobo state, said: "A serious and profound investigation has been initiated to find the causes and those responsible for these regrettable events." 
   
   His local political opponent, Juan Miguel Matheus, has demanded that those waiting outside the facility be kept informed: "The desperation of relatives should not be played with." 
   
   Image: A homicide unit arrives at the prison after a riot 
   
   Many Venezuelan jails are lawless and have been for decades. 
   
   Prisoners often openly wield machine guns and grenades, use drugs and leave guards powerless. 
   
   The overcrowding at many of the country's penitentiaries means convicts are often sent to temporary pens designed for suspects facing charges and court hearings, where they are supposed to stay for up to 48 hours only. 
   
   Image: Families gathered to await news outside the facility 
   
   Two weeks ago, 58 detainees had to be recaptured after escaping holding cells on the popular tourist spot of Margarita Island, and in August 2017 a riot at police cells in the southern state of Amazonas left 37 dead and 14 wounded. 
   
   Last April, a dozen people died and 11 were injured when rival gangs fought at the Puente Ayala prison in the eastern city of Barcelona, and a month before that the remains of 14 people were found in a mass grave at the General Penitentiary of Venezuela in San Juan de Los Morros. 
   
   Activist Humberto Prado said of the country's prisons: "There are people who are inside those dungeons, and the authorities do not know they exist because they do not dare to enter."
target: – At least 68 people were killed when fire swept through the cells of a police station in Venezuela early Wednesday—and relatives demanding answers later in the day were given tear gas instead. Tarek William Saab, chief prosecutor in the city of Valencia, says 68 people—66 men and two female visitors—died in "dramatic events" at the police command and detention center, and four prosecutors have been appointed to investigate the incident, CNN reports. "We will deepen the investigations to immediately clarify these painful events that has dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning," Saab says. Desperate families waiting for news outside the police station were tear-gassed and dispersed after fights with police, Sky News reports. The nonprofit group A Window to Freedom, which monitors conditions at detention facilities in Venezuela, says there are unconfirmed reports that the fire broke out during unrest that began when an armed detainee shot a guard in the leg, the AP reports. Inmates, some of them badly burned, had to be rescued through a hole made in the station wall. The group says severe overcrowding in police station jails is common in Venezuela. "It's grave and alarming," says Carlos Nieto Palma, the group's director.