A Russian court has given sentences ranging from six and a half years to 16 years to three Russians who killed a South Korean student last year.

The 22-year-old student identified as Kang was studying in Russia as part of an exchange program. He was beaten and stabbed 13 times by three local men in the city of Barnaul in Altai Krai in the Russian Far East last year.

His girlfriend, who was with him at the time, managed to escape, but Kang eventually died at a hospital.

The defendants aged 17 to 22 were found to be members of an illegal extremist youth group.

Despite a crackdown on such extremist groups, non-Caucasian foreigners are frequent targets of race-based violence in Russia.