Two immigrants were seriously injured and a third slightly hurt when they leapt out of a second-floor window as their room caught fire.

The police said they were called to the Marsa Open Centre early yesterday morning where they found that three Somali men had been injured and their room was ablaze.

As the civil protection department was called to put out the fire, the casualties were taken to hospital where it was established that two of them had broken bones and the third had sustained cuts and bruises. Although it was not yet clear what caused the blase, it is suspected that a cigarette might have been the spark for gas from a cylinder to be set alight and that the blankets draped around beds for privacy might have contributed to the spread of the fire.

The centre's coordinator, Ahmed Bugri, spoke to the three men shortly afterwards and they told him that they were asleep when they suddenly heard people shouting "Fire! Fire!"

In their panic, said Mr Bugri, they jumped out of their back window.

Asked whether keeping gas tanks in rooms was normal practice, Mr Bugri said that, although they were constantly warned not to do so, residents kept them close by in order to prevent theft.