[WARNING: DISTURBING VIDEO]

A 20-year-old South African student has been bullied, pushed, forced to imitate sex acts, stripped down and even had his head slammed into a watermelon by anti-LGBT activists linked to the Occupy Paedophilia movement in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine.

David Smith, a student at Shukhov State Technological University, was lured into an apartment by organised vigilantes who posed online as a gay 15-year-old.

Footage of the abuse that followed was posted on VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, and "liked" by thousands of people.

In the 33-minute video, Smith has his hair shaved down the middle and painted green, insulted by a member of the Occupy Paedophilia gang, forced to kiss a watermelon and then has his head smashed with it.

The South African student is also forced to simulate oral sex on a beer bottle by the activists and made to perform the 'bent thumb' gesture - a mock version of the Facebook "like" sign which is an identification symbol among Occupy Paedophilia members.

According to the anti-LGBT group, Smith was later expelled from his university. Belgorod is 670km south of Moscow near Russia's border with Ukraine.

Following the approval of legislation banning "homosexual propaganda", nationalist gangs such as Occupy Gerontophilia and Occupy Paedophilia have been encouraged to use social media such as VKontakte to lure young gay people into a trap and humiliate them on camera - with beatings, torture and abuse.

Footage shows youths being forced to drink urine or having it poured over their heads. Other film shows young men being mocked with dildos, threatened with axes and forced to carry wooden crucifixes.

Pretoria lawyers have written a letter to Russia authorities demanding an investigation into the latest homophobic incident.

"We demand an investigation as these perpetrators can easily be identified, as well as an explanation by the Russian authorities to the South African people," the letter stated, according to South African newspaper The Star.

"This thing of paedophilia, that comes from the thugs and that is the excuse they use to justify their actions. They're neo-Nazi skinheads, the paedophile thing is just a ruse. It's a thinly veiled smokescreen for homophobic attacks," said Pretoria lawyer Coenraad Kukkuk.

The letter also demands a travel warning to all South Africans of travel to the Russian Federation and the boycott of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

David Smith
David Smith abused by anti-LGBT vigilante (Screengrab)