Lucknow, Sept. 25: Prisoners in an Agra jail erupted today after a 22-year-old undertrial, thrashed and humiliated in public by staff, hanged himself in his cell.

Inmates shot at guards, set fire to buildings, tried to burn two jail employees alive and chased police personnel around the complex in a six-hour mayhem that left a rioter dead and exposed how brutally prisoners are treated at the district’s central jail.

Jail staff had kicked, punched and spat on Kuldeep Kumar last night for failing to pay them a Rs 2,000 bribe for allowing his family to meet him, fellow prisoners said.

The body of the young man, accused in an attempt-to-murder case, was found at 5.30 this morning, almost coinciding with the death of another inmate, Aslam, who succumbed to illness virtually without treatment.

As news of the twin deaths reached them, the inmates ? already pushed to the edge by the extortions and brutality they have had to endure in the jail ? exploded in fury.

The rioting left at least eight persons ? three jail employees and five prisoners ? injured, with one of the latter succumbing to his bullet wounds in hospital.

After police reinforcements quelled the violence, the authorities, in an acknowledgement of the prisoners’ grievances, suspended the jailer and the two deputy jailers and ordered a probe.

There was a second round of violence in the afternoon after Kuldeep’s relatives arrived. The police caned the family, prompting them and local residents into a spell of stone-throwing.

Earlier, for a couple of hours in the morning, the rioters had virtually taken control of the jail, prisoners said.