LONDON: A gang of youths beat to death a 16-year-old Qatari student in a British seaside town in what police say is a racist attack.

Postmortem results were expected today after Mohammed Al-Majed died in London’s King’s College Hospital on Sunday night from severe head injuries two days after he and his friends were assaulted outside a takeaway in Hastings on the south coast of England. Police are treating his death as murder.

Al-Majed had spent five weeks in Hastings studying English at the EF International Language School. He had been due to return home next week.

Al-Majed and his friends were set upon as they left a social club shortly before midnight on Friday. They were beaten, kicked and pelted with glass bottles by a group of hooded youths, who stamped repeatedly on the 16-year-old’s head before leaving him for dead.

His roommate, Majd Al-Ghannamah, 19, who suffered a black eye, said the assailants chanted racist abuse during the attack. “They called me Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. We just wanted to get away, get home, but they attacked and we couldn’t get away,” he said.

Another student suffered a head injury that needed six stitches. “I blame myself for not saving Mohammed, but where I come from, we are not used to this kind of thing happening. At home, we never need to defend ourselves like that,” said the boy, who did not want to be named.

Police said they were continuing to question an 18-year-old local man. Three other men, aged 17, 18 and 20, have been arrested, interviewed and released on bail pending further inquiries.

“The young man had spent about five weeks in Hastings and was due to return home next weekend. His death is incredibly sad ... Enormous numbers of foreign students come to Hastings and Rother each summer, in the region of 30,000 to 50,000,” said Sussex Police Chief Inspector Natalie Carron.

Al-Majed had been socializing at a club at the USA Fried Chicken and Kebab house. The owner, Remzi Tanriverdi, 43, said trouble started after some local youths started drinking alcohol outside the shop. Tanriverdi, a Kurd who moved to Hastings five years ago, asked them to leave, but they refused and verbally abused him.

“After I asked them to leave, I noticed a police car pull up outside. I asked them to keep an eye on the boys, and they said they would — then left. Less than an hour later, Mohammed — who was like a brother to everyone here — had been beaten. The attack was completely unprovoked and without reason,” he said.

Yesterday another of Al-Majed’s roommates, 17-year-old Abdul Aziz, said: “We are all deeply shocked at what has happened. Mohammed was everyone’s friend. We cannot believe something like this could happen. We will never come back here.”