Isanbul : Thirteen prisoners have been killed in a fire that broke out in a jail in south-east Turkey during a dispute among inmates.

The blaze, at a jail housing about 1,000 prisoners in Sanliurfa province, occurred after a row flared up among a group of 18 inmates in one dormitory on Saturday night, said the provincial governor, Celalettin Guvenc.

Some Turkish media reports said the prisoners had set fire to their bedding in a protest but the governor denied there was any mutiny.

The remaining five inmates in the dormitory suffered injuries.

Fire fighters extinguished the blaze after about one and a half hours. Security personnel were sent to the jail to restore order, media reports said.

Ibrahim Ayhan, a member of parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), was among the inmates at the prison but was not believed to have been hurt, the broadcaster NTV said.