Russians and Chinese fight on Siberia river beach

MOSCOW, July 19 (Reuters) Russian and Chinese youths fought each other with knives on a river beach in Siberia, mirroring similar recent outbreaks of inter-ethnic fighting in European Russia.

''During the fight four Russians were wounded and one taken into intensive care,'' Interfax news agency said today, quoting a law enforcement source in Khabarovsk where the fight took place.

Khabarovsk is a city of about 500,000 people, around 30 kilometers from the border with China in Pacific Russia. The fight occurred on a beach on the Amur river in the south of the city yesterday.

A city government spokeswoman confirmed a fight had occurred but declined to give further details. Officials in Russia are often reluctant to talk about incidents involving racial tension.

There is widespread resentment towards millions of migrants who have moved to Russia, attracted by its economic boom, and fights between Russians and immigrants have increased over the last 12 months accompanied by an upturn in racist attacks.

Most of the racial tension has centred in European Russia, where migrants from the former Soviet countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia as well as Chechens and other darker-skinned people from Russia's southern provinces have settled.

Last month, hundreds of Russians demonstrated in the streets of Stavropol after a fight led to the death of a Chechen and two Russians.

The reasons for the Siberian beach fight on Wednesday were not clear but Russia's Far East, home to thousands of economic immigrants from China, has so far been less affected by racial tension.

REUTERS ARB PM1638