An Australian teenager pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the stabbing murder of Nitin Garg, the worst in a series of violent crimes against students from India that hurt diplomatic ties.

Garg, 21, was attacked as he walked through parkland to work at a Melbourne burger restaura related stories

* At your own peril in Oz

nt on January 2 last year. He managed to stagger to his workplace before collapsing with fatal stab wounds.

The highest-profile in a string of muggings and beatings of Indian students in Australia, Garg's murder made international headlines and tested diplomatic ties with New Delhi, who condemned it as a "heinous crime on humanity".

A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to killing Garg and to one count of attempted armed robbery in the Victorian Supreme Court and was remanded in custody for a sentencing hearing in July.