Reports from Russia say the acting Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko has sharply criticised the police handling of a student demonstration at Yekaterinburg in the Urals region yesterday The students were protesting about the government's failure to pay overdue scholarships and salaries for teachers when police attacked them with clubs, inflicting a number of injuries.

Mr Kiriyenko described what happened as deplorable and inadmissable.

Earlier, the authorities in Moscow ordered an investigation after video footage of the violence was shown on television news.

Regional government officials have also expressed concern about the police action.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service