Egypt has been in contact with Italian authorities to reveal the circumstances surrounding the clinical death of an Egyptian inmate at a prison in the central Italian city of Viterbo, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Hassan Mekheimar was sent to a local hospital in critical condition last week after he attempted to commit suicide while in solitary confinement, the ministry quoted the prison administration as saying.

The ministry did not mention why the Egyptian national was being detained.

The prison notified the Egyptian embassy about the incident on 24 July and requested that Mekheimar's mother be informed and invited her to visit him at the hospital.

However, on Monday, Mekheimar clinically died "as a result of complications resulting from the suicide attempt," according to Italian prison authorities.

Prison and hospital officials told an Egyptian embassy delegation that Mekheimar was sent to the hospital completely unconscious on 23 July after he attempted to commit suicide by hanging.

The Egyptian embassy has officially requested that the prison conduct a probe into the incident and asked for medical reports from the hospital.