Inmates killed after jailbreak in India

Eight inmates were shot dead by police on Monday hours after they broke out from a high-security prison in the second largest state of India, officials said.

The prisoners allegedly belonged to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), that is a banned student organisation and has been blamed for several deadly attacks across India.

It was outlawed in 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

"Eight inmates related to the SIMI escaped from Bhopal Central Jail between 2 to 3 am today. They used their blankets to make a rope and crossed the bigger wall of the jail," Bhopal Inspector General of Police Yogesh Choudhary told reporters.

On the night of Diwali, a major Hindu festival, the men slit the throat of a guard by steel plates and glass shards despite the high security measures, Cahuldary said.

Following the jailbreak, police tracked down the suspects to a village which is located about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Bhopal, the capital of the Madhya Pradesh state and killed all in a gunfight.

"They fired on police and our teams retaliated in defense. All eight were killed in crossfire," said Yogesh Chaudhary, Bhopal's inspector general of police.

SIMI was blamed for the 2006 attack on a commuter train that left 187 people dead in the country's most populous city, Mumbai.

The group is also accused of carrying out a string of bombings in Gujarat that had killed 45 people in 2008.