Beijing  - Five people died on Sunday after a dispute at a video-game centre in south-western China escalated into a pitched battle involving at least 20 people, some armed with knives and batons, state media said on Monday.

Several youths got into an argument with the manager of the Milky Way Express games centre in the Nanping district of Chongqing city late Sunday evening, the official Xinhua news agency quoted city police as saying.

More than 20 other people later joined the fight, which ended with five people dead and at least two injured, the agency said.

Police were investigating the violence and had not released the identities of those killed.

Most of the people involved were young men aged around 20 years old, the agency said.

Chongqing police on Monday ordered public security inspections of all internet bars and video-game centres after the incident, it said.