POLICE were called when a noise row involving two students and a professor became far more than purely academic.

Maya Socolovsky, 26, and boyfriend Gordon Hull, 25, of Southfield Road, east Oxford, claim Israeli Prof Mzi Malki, who lives in the flat above them, has been waking them at 5am with his radio alarm and disturbing their studies with loud music.

They say the professor has tried to evict them without good reason on a number of occasions during the past eight months, so that he could move his family into their two-bedroomed home.

Mr Hull said: "We haven't slept for three weeks. It's been a living nightmare. The professor has been setting his alarm for 5am every morning and neither of us can concentrate on our studies. The professor often plays loud music which we can hear very clearly from our kitchen.

"We plan to move out in June because we just can't take this any more. This flat has rising damp but we would be prepared to put up with that for a bit of peace and quiet." The couple, who pay £550 a month rent, have contacted the city council's environmental health officers. But then Prof Malki called the police as the dispute escalated. Officers spoke to both parties.

Prof Malki said he did not own the downstairs property but managed it for an institute which he declined to name.

He said: "I called the police because the tenants started banging on my door.

"They haven't paid any rent this month and I am looking forward to them leaving in June. They have been harassing me, not the other way round."

He admitted setting his alarm clock for 5am on a number of occasions so that he could pick people up from the airport.

Miss Socolovsky and Mr Hull moved in last July.

Miss Socolovsky, studying American literature at Oxford University, said: "I'll be glad when we leave."

Mr Hull added: "We haven't paid this month's rent yet. We just want to concentrate on finding somewhere else."

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