The festival of colour paled for three African footballers who represent Tollygunge Agragami as they were beaten up by a mob after expressing dislike at being sprayed with colour by young Holi revellers in the southern outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday.

The trio -- Akeem Abolanle and Isiaka Awoyemi of Nigeria and Kenyan Moses Oweera -- were mobbed by revellers as they alighted from a taxi near their residence in Kasba, police sources said.

Eyewitnesses said the footballers, who had returned after a friendly against East Bengal in Siliguri on Monday, protested and shoved the revellers away, leading to a scuffle. This led angry locals to rush to the spot and beat them up.

Tollgunge Agragami secretary Mantu Ghosh said Moses lost his bag in the melee.

The three players later filed an FIR with the Kasba police station. None of them sustained any injury.

The matter was amicably settled later after seniors of the locality went to the police station along with the revellers and made peace.