Jalandhar, April 27 (IANS) A friendly fooball match between students from Africa and Mizoram in a college campus here turned deadly when players of the two teams engaged in a brawl, resulting in the death of a player. Three African students have been booked, and all of them are absconding, police said Wednesday.

The deceased has been identified as Johnny Jwala from Mizoram.

"It was a friendly match between Mizo and African students who study here at Lovely Professional University. During the last five minutes, the African students got offended over a goal. They grabbed Johnny and started punching him," Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandeep Sharma told IANS.

"They also hit him on his private parts. He was immediately taken to a hospital but was declared brought dead. We have booked three African students. We have formed special teams that are raiding various places to nab them," Sharma said in Jalandhar, about 150 km from Chandigarh.

Police said the accused have been identified as Ahmed Al-Nagni and Sayed from Tanzania, and Hatin Ingrish from Sudan.

However, some police sources said all the 11 playing members of the African team were detained Tuesday night and their questioning was on.

Aman Mittal, the university's deputy director, said: "This is a very unfortunate incident. But nothing was planned beforehand. We have registered a police complaint and would make sure that strict action is taken against the guilty."

Currently, over 250 foreign students from 16 countries are studying at the university. Of them, around 50 are from African countries.

Punjab's first private university, Lovely Professional University is located on the Phagwara-Jalandhar National Highway and has over 24,000 students on its rolls.