"A 23-year-old Indian national was attacked at about 8:40 last night [4:40 p.m. GMT] on Kirillovskaya Street, near the [medical university] Mechnikov Academy's dormitory" in the center of the city, the source said.
The student was hospitalized with knife injuries in the neck. Hospital officials said he was in a satisfactory condition.
Preliminary investigation suggested the student had been attacked by two unknown men, although police declined to comment further. Local prosecutors are deciding whether to open a criminal case.
St. Petersburg has witnessed a string of apparently racially motivated attacks in recent years.
An African student was shot dead with a rifle marked with a swastika April 7, while two Mongolian students were beaten up in the city's subway Sunday. A Chinese student was attacked outside her apartment block this month, while a nine-year-old girl of mixed Russian and African origin was hospitalized after being stabbed near her apartment building March 25.
Other violent attacks in St. Petersburg include an attack on a man from Mali, who was stabbed to death in February, and the murder of a student from Cameroon last December and of a Congolese student in September.
Nine-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultonova died in February 2004 after being attacked by a group of young men. Her parents are appealing a jury decision to convict the main defendant of robbery and hooliganism while clearing him of murder. Six others were found guilty of hooliganism, and another was cleared of all charges.
