CAIRO, November 27 (IslamOnline.net) - A Muslim student lost an eye when he was accosted and beaten by five British soldiers outside a London nightclub in an apparent racist attack, a London-based Arabic newspaper reported on Saturday, November 27.

Syrian Adnan Said, 23, was hit in the face by a bottle thrown by one of the soldiers as he was spending the night with his colleagues in the Wellington Club in the posh Knightsbridge district, mass-circulation Al-Hayat newspaper said.

The British soldiers called Said and his three colleagues “foreigners scum”, beating and kicking Said just when he tried to object.

The London Evening Standard daily said the soldiers belonged to the elite Household Cavalry regiment, the sovereign's personal bodyguard.

Holding an engineering degree from the University College London (UCL), Said has had his left eye replaced with an artificial one.

His friend Mahmud Al-Taran said Said would spend a few days in Western Eye hospital for recuperation.

“There is no excuse for their act. I’m pretty sure that was a racist attack because it all happened when we started speaking in Arabic,” he told the Arabic daily.

A Ministry of Defense spokesperson told Al-Hayat that the five soldiers were arrested and released late on bail pending investigation.