A massive fire raged through an overcrowded prison in Honduras, killing more than 350 inmates, many of them trapped and screaming inside their cells.

The blaze began late on Tuesday night at the prison in Comayagua, about 75 km (45 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa and killed 359 people, said Danelia Ferrera, a senior official at the attorney general's office.

'It's a terrible scene ... Our staff went into the cells and the bodies are charred, most of them are unrecognizable,' Ferrera told Reuters, adding that officials would have to use dental records and DNA in many cases to identify those killed..