Three youths have been charged and detained in connection with Saturday's attack on six Chinese students near Bordeaux, French police said on Monday.

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The youths, aged 19 and 20, were charged on Sunday night with aggravated violence, using or threatening to use arms and drunkenness, according to the prosecutor's office in Bordeaux.

The trio had hurled racist insults early on Saturday morning, when they assaulted the group of Chinese oenology students in Hostens, a small village about 50 kilometres south of Bordeaux in southwest France.

A female student was seriously hurt in the face by a glass bottle that was thrown at her. She was hospitalised and underwent surgery.

French ministers have condemned what they said was a "racist" attack, adding that it had tarnished the image of France. The French interior minister Manuel Valls described the violence as an act of xenophobia.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Monday also expressed "strong condemnation" of the attack on in the wine-producing Bordeaux region.

"So far, the injured student has been properly treated," Hua said at a regular briefing, adding that she had asked the French authorities to “take effective measures to protect Chinese citizens' safety and rights in France."

Concern has grown in China in recent months over the increasing number of thefts and attacks targeting Chinese tourists.

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