2 Russian soccer fans stabbed in Serbia

Two Russian fans have been hospitalised with serious injuries after being stabbed following a friendly soccer match between Red Star Belgrade and Lokomotiv Moscow.

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said today police were looking for the knife-wielding perpetrators who attacked a group of Lokomotiv fans in downtown Belgrade late yesterday.

Serbian media reports said the Russian fans were attacked by supporters of Red Star's rival Partizan Belgrade. The match, which Red Star won 2-1, was meant to promote Serbia's traditional friendship with Russia.

Stefanovic says "nobody should think they could hurt the Serbian-Russian friendship" with such attacks.

Serbia has seen a surge of fan violence inside and outside stadiums. In 2009, a French football fan was fatally beaten in Belgrade.