British diplomat beaten up in Siberian town

A British diplomat was beaten up by unidentified assailants in a Siberian city, Russian police said Monday.

Nigel Gould-Davies, first secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow, was attacked by a group of teenagers when he went out for a nighttime stroll in the city of Chita over the weekend, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Gould-Davies, who was on an introductory trip to Chita, 6,070 kilometers (3,760 miles) east of Moscow, was treated at a local clinic for minor facial injuries before he left Chita, the officer said. The diplomat told police he could not identify the attackers because they broke his glasses during the assault.

The police officer said that investigators suspected that rowdy school students who were celebrating their graduation that night could be behind the assault and launched a search for them.

An official at the British Embassy in Moscow declined to comment.