MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – Sixteen students from Nigeria studying in Moscow have been arrested for thrashing a conference hall in their country’s embassy in the Russian capital after an apparent dispute over financial aid issues, a Moscow police source said Tuesday.

According to the source, police received a fax message late Monday from the Nigerian embassy downtown Moscow asking for assistance in dealing with a crowd of enraged students who refused to leave the embassy building after a discussion of financial issues, broke the furniture in the conference hall and threatened further destruction in other sections of the embassy.

Police arrested 16 Nigerian students on charges of hooliganism, the source said, adding that their administrative cases will be sent to a Moscow court for processing.

Moscow police officials later confirmed the incident without providing further details.