Several Moscow policemen were in for a scare of their lives when a crowd of foreigners attacked them for arresting several migrant workers, city police said on Saturday.
Six Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan merchants were detained for unauthorized trading in central Moscow on Friday, police said on its Web site.
But some 100 of their fellows came down on the officers carrying out the arrests, pelting them with stones and iron bars and trying to storm the van holding the detainees, the report said.
Five officers sustained numerous bruises to their heads, necks and limbs, but no serious injuries were reported.
Six more foreigners, including some Egyptians, were detained over the brief riot, whose perpetrators may now end up in prison for up to 10 years if charged and convicted of assaulting police on duty.