British student ‘threatened locals with knife and asked for drugs’

A British student at one of Russia’s top universities has been arrested after threatening locals with a knife and demanding drugs from passers-by, authorities say.

Police say they have launched a ‘hooliganism’ investigation after catching Richard Williams, 19, brandishing a blade in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.

It is not known what drugs the student at Nizhny Novgorod’s Higher School of Economics was allegedly asking for as he ran down the street.

Williams, who is in the country on a student visa, lists his ‘city of origin’ as London and his date of birth as August 8, 1999 on Russian social media platform Vk.

The Higher School of Economics was ranked the third best university in Russia in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.

Its main campus is in Moscow but it also has sites in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Perm.