Lucknow, Apr 19 (IANS): An inspector of the Uttar Pradesh Police was shot dead Wednesday in Mau district in a fierce gun battle between a Special Operations Group (SOG) team and two criminals.

The incident took place after a hot pursuit by the police team in Mathiya village -- almost 310 km from Lucknow -- when the two criminals, finding themselves cornered, barged into a nearby house and took the family hostage.

The criminals opened fire at the police team from inside the house and, after a brief exchange of gunfire, the criminals shot at inspector Govind Singh, killing him on the spot. A police spokesman told IANS in Lucknow that reinforcements have been rushed to the scene of the shootout.

UP Home Secretary Kamal Saxena confirmed the incident and said police reinforcements had been sent to the spot where the gun battle was continuing.

Inspector General (Law & order) Badri Prasad Singh told IANS that one criminal had been shot dead Wednesday night and efforts were on to rescue the hostages and flush out the lone surviving criminal.

The family which has been taken hostage by the criminals includes a middle-aged man and a woman. The state government has ordered senior officials at the DGP headquarters to keep a watch on developments unfolding at Mau and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also been apprised of the incident.

A COBRA commando unit has been rushed to the shootout site from Varanasi to take over the operations and flush out the criminal hiding inside the house, sources here said. Orders have also been issued to ensure adequate lighting facilities at the site as the gun battle was apparently set to go on till late night.