Ankara, Turkey - Reports say five prisoners were burned to death when a prison van caught fire in a town in central Turkey.
Mehmet Ozel, the local official of the central Anatolian town of Pinarbasi in Kayseri province, says on Friday that the blaze is believed to have started in the engine section and quickly engulfed the van.
He says paramilitary soldiers in the front were unable to open the locked doors to the rear section, which was holding the prisoners.
State-run Anatolia news agency says the inmates were burned to death and the soldiers treated for shock.
It says the inmates were being transferred from the eastern city of Van to another prison in Istanbul. - Sapa-AP