Prisoners Die Of Suffocation

Two prisoners suffocated in an airless, overcrowded prison and a third man was hospitalized in critical condition, the ITAR-Tass news agency said Saturday.

Three other inmates at the pretrial facility in Perm, 700 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, had to be revived with respirators Friday night, the report said.

The warden ordered windows and food hatches throughout the overcrowded prison opened on Saturday, ITAR-Tass reported.

The facility houses people who have been arrested but are awaiting either charges or trial. The report did not say how many prisoners are incarcerated there.