A mixed race Asian man has described how he was attacked while defending a woman from racists who were shouting “Allahu Akbar” at her.
Evening Standard reports that Peter Yeung, 26, said three men were shouting “Allahu Akbar” at a female train station worker at London Bridge station.
Yeung, a journalist at the Times, intervened when he heard the racist abuse that was targeted at the woman who “appeared to be Arabic”.
The incident occurred when Yeung was travelling home to Camberwell on Saturday 18 November.
“She was sweeping,” Yeung told the Evening Standard. “There was three guys standing on the corner shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘you are a dirty Arab’.”
“They were making shooting gestures at her”, he added.
Yeung asked the men to stop but they then turned their attack on him shouting racist abuse at him instead.
“I’m mixed race, Asian by appearance,” Yeung explained. “They started shouting abuse at me.”
One of the men grabbed Yeung and put him in a headlock after he alerted the station staff.
“I went back to take photos,” Mr Yeung said. “Then one of the men came over and grabbed me by the neck and tried to take my phone. He got me in a head lock.”
A spokesperson for British Transport Police said, “We have received a report of a racially aggravated common assault and a racially aggravated public order offence against a member of railway staff and member of the public at London Bridge.”
“The incident happened at around 6pm on Saturday 18 November. Officers are making enquiries and have been in contact with the victim. If anyone has any information please call 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016 quoting reference number 189 of 19 November.”
I was just at London Bridge station and group of three white guys started shouting racist abuse and making machine gun gestures at a National Rail worker who was female and Arabic
— Peter Yeung (@ptr_yeung) November 18, 2017
I called them out on it and told them to stop. At which point they started racially abusing me. I went to lodge a complaint with a member of staff and took photos of them
— Peter Yeung (@ptr_yeung) November 18, 2017
