A group of Japanese students contacted police in Venice claiming they were charged €1,100 (£970) for a simple meal consisting of three steaks and a plate of fried fish.

The bill was presented at the Osteria da Luca, in the Mercerie district close to St Mark’s Square on Friday where the diners had washed down their modest meal with mineral water.

“This is just the latest case of many of this kind,” said Marco Gasparinetti, a spokesman for the April 25 Group, a civil rights organisation, in Venice

“The young people, who are university students in Bologna, made a formal denunciation to the local police station as soon as they got off the train,” the Venice Today website quoted Mr Gasparinetti saying.

Asked about the €1,100 bill the restaurant owner said only: “I don’t remember having any problems with Japanese customers.”

Mr Gasparinetti added that three of the students from the same group had recently sat down for a meal in another Venice restaurant that hit headlines when a British tourist wrote to the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, to complain about sky-high prices. The three women, for their part, were charged a total of €350 (£308 pounds) for three plates of pasta at Trattoria Casanova, Mr Gasparinetti said.