Rio de Janeiro, March 15 (IANS/EFE) The Frei Caneca Penitentiary Complex, Brazil's oldest prison built in 1850, has been demolished to make way for the construction of 2,500 public housing units, the official Agencia Brasil news agency reported.

The prison's eight cellblocks were imploded in 18 seconds Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, where the facility was built by Portuguese colonial authorities.

Public housing will be constructed at the site under the federal government's 'Mi casa, mi vida' programme, providing a new place to live for residents of nearby poor areas and other people in crime-ridden sections of Rio de Janeiro.

Construction of the public housing units is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, the Rio de Janeiro state Housing Department said.

Some 10,000 people who live near the prison site were evacuated before the structure was brought down with 500 kg of dynamite.

Seismographs set up in the area indicated that nearby structures were not damaged by the blast.

The prison's rubble will be used to make road materials and cement blocks.

Among those who did time at the Frei Caneca Penitentiary was Olga Benario, the wife of leftist activist Luiz Carlos Prestes. Benario was extradited to Germany and died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942.

The 70 inmates serving time at the prison were transferred to other penitentiaries.