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MINNEAPOLIS — Two of three American hikers jailed in Iran for nearly nine months are in poor health and told Swiss diplomats — their first outside visitors since October — that they were considering a hunger strike, their mothers said late Thursday.

Sarah Shourd, who is being held alone in a cell, is suffering a serious gynecological condition and battling depression, while Shane Bauer has a stomach ailment, their mothers told The Associated Press.

Shourd, Bauer and Josh Fattal met earlier Thursday with the diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in the absence of a U.S.-Iran diplomatic relationship, at Evin Prison in Tehran. But they were given few details of their medical conditions.

"I'm really alarmed," said Nora Shourd, who lives in Oakland, Calif. "I'm alarmed for Sarah's health. I think she needs immediate care."

The three University of California at Berkeley graduates were detained July 31, after apparently straying into Iran while hiking in a scenic part of Iraq. This month, Iran's intelligence minister accused them of having links to U.S. intelligence services, which their families said was absurd.

Iranian officials have suggested each will be prosecuted, but no trial has been set. Although their families hired an Iranian attorney, he has not been allowed to see them.

Bauer and Fattal, who are both 27, and Shourd, 31, had been allowed no sympathetic visitors in months, though they were allowed to call their mothers... >>>