At least three people were killed Saturday when a mass brawl involving hundreds of men broke out at a Moscow cemetery, officials said.

"At the moment, we have 26 injured and three dead," Interfax news agency said, quoting a spokesman for Moscow's health department.

Twenty-three people were hospitalised, four of them with serious injuries, the official said.

An earlier toll by police gave two dead and 10 injured, along with 50 arrests.

Reports said the fight at the Khovanskoye cemetery involved 200 immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and residents from Russia's volatile North Caucasus. 

Footage shown on the TV news channel LifeNews showed dozens of men armed with staves or steel bars in running battles inside the cemetery and at its entrance.

The interior ministry said the fight including firearms appeared to have been sparked by a dispute over who had the right to work on the cemetery, a massive 200-hectare (500-acre) site on Moscow's southwestern rim.

Source: AFP