SAO PAULO – Five inmates were killed and 39 others injured in a fire at a prison in the northern Brazilian city of Joao Pessoa, the media reported Friday, citing officials.

The public safety secretary in Paraiba state, Roosevelt Vitta, told a press conference the fire was started as a diversion to cover a planned escape attempt.

He said the foiled plot was aimed at liberating inmate Jackson Pereira da Silva, a member of the Comando Vermelho (Red Command) crime organization scheduled for transfer to a prison in Rio de Janeiro state to serve an 18-year sentence for various crimes.

The injured are in stable condition at a nearby hospital, Vitta said.

The official suggested that the people who had planned to bust Pereira da Silva out of the prison in Joao Pessoa were behind the Oct. 14 theft of 58 guns from a police armory in the neighboring state of Pernambuco. EFE