Students in Nepal yesterday reacted angrily to a British decision to suspend their visa applications, accusing the authorities in London of "playing with people's lives".

Many said they had already paid thousands of pounds for courses in Britain, which they now feared they would not be able to attend.

"I have spent a whole year applying for higher education in Britain and now I don't know what I am going to do," said Rabin Bhattarai, 22, who was hoping tostudyinLondon.

"My classes start on February 10 and I have already paid 3,600 pounds (5,700 dollars) to the college."

Britain said Sunday it had temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh to investigate a sharp rise in the number of applicants.

The suspension followed recent media reports that unscrupulous businessmen were helping thousands of migrants from south Asia to obtain places at bogus colleges in Britain.

India has yet to make any official reaction to the suspension, while the Bangladesh foreign ministry said it wanted normal service to resume as soon as possible.

"We want genuine students to study in England," a spokesman said. "We don't want anything that may harm the causes of authentic students."

The British High Commission in Dhaka received 9,500 visa applications from Bangladeshi students between Octoberand December 2009 --up from 1,200 the same period in the previous year, he said.

Authorities in Nepal said the increase in student visa applications came after Britain relaxed rules in 2008.

"The new policy encouraged a lot of students to opt for Britain instead of the United States or Australia," said Narayan Krishna Shrestha, head of the foreign study department at Nepal's educationministry.

"After that, the number of students going to Britain in a single month exceeded the total number for the whole of the previous year."

According to figures supplied by the ministry, 24,824 people left Nepal last year to study abroad, 6,627 of whom went to Britain.

Richard Stagg, the British high commissioner in New Delhi, said the suspension was necessary as "some applicants are attempting to abuse our visa processes and we will not let that happen".