A fire broke out in a cell at the Stadelheim prison in the Obergiesing district on Wednesday afternoon. The fire department was alerted around 3 p.m. and arrived at the Munich prison. The emergency services rescued a total of 22 prisoners from flames and smoke.
According to the fire department, one person, presumably an inmate in the cell, was seriously injured in the fire and was taken to a clinic. Eleven other prisoners from the correctional facility were slightly injured, two of whom were also taken to hospital.
Five people among the prison officers were slightly injured, but they were treated on site, according to a spokesman for the fire department. The fire was finally extinguished around 3:50 p.m., but firefighters continued to work until 5:30 p.m. The spokesman was unable to provide any information about the exact cause of the fire. The police are currently investigating how the fire in the cell could have started.
The JVA Stadelheim is one of the largest prisons in Germany and has a total of 1,400 places.