Fifty-one prisoners died during an overnight escape attempt in a prison in the southwestern Colombian city of Tulua, the country's prison agency said on Tuesday.

"It is a tragic and disastrous event," General Tito Castellanos, head of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), told local Caracol Radio, adding over 30 people were injured.

According to information from INPEC, it started when the police tried to contain an escape attempt in a pavilion with about 200 inmates. Some of the prisoners set fire to their mattresses and started a fight that ended in tragedy.

(With input from Reuters)