Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22 and fourth-year medical students at Newcastle University, were on attachment to a hospital in Kuching.
The Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported that the attack happened at 4.15am in the Jalan Padungan area of Kuching in Sarawak province, in the west of the Malaysian part of Borneo.
Sarawak deputy police commissioner Datuk Dr Chai Khin Chung told the agency that the fight broke out after an argument in a bar over the students being too noisy. He added that the Brits had been due to finish their training at the local hospital on Friday, and that four suspects are in custody.
‘Highly committed’
Professor Jane Calvert, Dean of Undergraduate Studies for Newcastle University Medical School, said: “We heard this morning about the tragic death of two of our students, who were working out in east Malaysia.
“They were doing what thousands of medical students do every year – they were on an elective to experience clinical practice in a different setting, to learn from that and enhance their practice when they came back.
“I didn’t know them personally, but they were well-known by the programme director and teachers on the course and we are all so shocked and saddened by this.
“They were excellent students, they were doing really well with their studies, they were highly committed and coming back next year to work as doctors.
“Aidan was aspiring to do some medical research on his return, Neil was going straight into his final year, and it’s such a tragic thing to occur.”