Imphal, July 30: Three inmates, including two "foreigners", were killed and some others, including jail staff, injured in clashes inside Sajiwa Central Jail here last night.

Jail officials said the victims include two convicts who claimed to be Saudi Arabians and an undertrial prisoner from Manipur. Three jail officials and another undertrial prisoner sustained minor injuries while trying to bring the situation under control.

Preliminary investigation revealed that trouble broke out in cell number 1 of sector-I of Sajiwa jail around 1am today.

The three convicts - Yusuf, 21, and Abdus Salam, 22, claiming to be Saudi nationals, and Thangminlian Zou, alias Bobon, 29, from Churachandpur district of Manipur were lodged in cell number 1. Yusuf and Abdus were arrested at Manipur's border township of Moreh, which shares a border# with Myanmar, for entering the state without any valid documents in 2013. They were given a year's sentence, which ended on June 23, 2014. As no one came to receive them, the duo were still lodged in jail.

"We contacted the Saudi Arabia embassy in Delhi about the two prisoners, but no response came. So we are not sure whether they are actually Saudi Arabian nationals or not," the additional director-general of police (prisons), P. Doungel, said.

Thangminlian was an undertrial, booked for murder. The officer said Yusuf and Abdus killed him using both blunt and sharp weapons inside their cell around 1am today. "On hearing sounds of theclash, inmates of other cells broke their locked doors, came out and broke open the door of cell number 1. They dragged out Yusuf and Abdus and lynched the duo.

Additional police reinforcements were rushed to Sajiwa. Teargas shells were lobbed and police fired in the air to bring the situation under control.

"After the situation was brought under control, the threewere found dead. These are the findings of the initial investigation," Doungel said.

The India Reserve Battalion personnel deployed in the outer security ring of the jail and additional police reinforcements fired in the air to get the inmates back into their cells. Doungel said the jail authorities will inform the Saudi Arabia embassy again. If no response comes, the bodies of Yusuf and Abdus will be cremated.