Student Dies in Russia's Latest Racist Attack

An African student was shot dead in St Petersburg with a hunting rifle emblazoned with a swastika early yesterday in an apparently planned racist attack that has horrified Russia.

The shooting, the fourth such assault on someone from an ethnic minority in the country in a week, has been blamed on a rise in skinhead groups and the extreme right in Russia's second largest city.

Witnesses said the gunman shot Lamzar Samba, 28, a communications student from Senegal, in the back of the neck when he and a group of foreign students were leaving the Apollo nightclub.

A friend of Mr Samba's, who gave his name as Theo, ran out of the club moments after the shooting. "He died in my arms, trying to say something," he told the Guardian. "He was walking towards the metro station from the nightclub at about 5.40am. We always go home that way, quietly, so as not to attract attention. Suddenly there was a shot from behind. They turned around and saw a man with a gun behind them, who ran off."

Theo said the man, described by police as of European appearance and in his 20s, had been waiting in a nearby archway.

Mr Samba was a member of the African Unity organisation which has been pushing for better police protection of foreign students. Moscow police sent investigators to St Petersburg to help the investigation, and the foreign ministry expressed its condolences to Mr Samba's relatives.

The Kremlin's human rights ombudsman, the Social Chamber, urged greater action by the police.