Lucknow, Aug 22 (IANS): Three rape and murder accused Thursday escaped from the high security district prison in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district, police said.

Following the jail break, the state government suspended the jail superintendent and three other staff members of the prison.

The prisoners - Sanju, Rakesh and Shakir - escaped early Thursday from the jail located in Civil Lines in Etawah town, hardly a few metres away from the residence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The missing trio were detected at the roll call Thursday morning.

A case was immediately registered with the Civil Lines police but the prison officials were unable to explain how the three hardened criminals managed to escape.

The state government said that it had taken serious note of the incident and announced the suspensions of jail superintendent R.N. Pandey, staff members Shri Krishna Pandey, Rakesh Kumar Verma and Ajay Kumarr Jha.