A nine-year-old girl of mixed race was stabbed by two attackers in the northern city of St Petersburg late on Saturday, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday. Two attackers followed the girl into the entrance hall of her block of flats and stabbed her in the neck and head.

The girl, who is a Russian citizen, made her way to her flat, where her father, a citizen of the African state of Mali, called the emergency services. She was operated on at a local hospital but doctors were concerned about her head injuries, state television reported.

Police sources cited by the First Channel television station said it was likely to have been a racist attack. President Vladimir Putin has called on police to stamp out racist attacks. But immigrant groups and foreign students say attacks are frequent, especially on those whose skin colour marks them out as foreign.