Hunt for man who 'tried to pull off young woman's hijab and punched her' in vicious Tube attack

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A manhunt has been launched after man allegedly tried to pull off a young Muslim woman’s hijab before punching her in a vicious London Underground attack.

The woman, aged 18, was waiting for a train at Baker Street station with a group of friends when a man tried to yank off her hijab on the platform on Friday night.

According to Aniso Safiaadya, who described what happened in a string of tweets, the man then hit her while another woman “threw out threats” and shouted abuse.

The man continued to target the group, yelling abuse at the women and pinning one of them against the wall and spitting.

He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face

— Aniso.safiaadya (@AnisoAbdulkadir) July 15, 2017

The woman was throwing out threats and was also verbally abusive

— Aniso.safiaadya (@AnisoAbdulkadir) July 15, 2017

I urge everyone to retweet;someone on your tl could know who they are

— Aniso.safiaadya (@AnisoAbdulkadir) July 15, 2017

One of the woman’s friends also tweeted what happened, and said it was “completely unprovoked” and happened at just after 12am.

She said she was “disgusted” at people in the station who watched the incident unfold but did nothing.

This was completely unprovoked and happened around 12-12:20am, both were around 5’10(woman) 6’2(man)

— Lux (@ItsLuxi) July 15, 2017

Racism is a real thing people choose to ignore, we really do live in a pathetic society where people are all talk and completely useless

— Lux (@ItsLuxi) July 15, 2017

“I’d just like to take a moment to emphasise on my disgust on the people who witnessed a grown man pull an 18 year olds hijab and remain silent,” she said.

“Believe me there were more than 20/30 people and not a single person helped, people just watched and filmed.

“Racism is a real thing people choose to ignore, we really do live in a pathetic society where people are all talk and completely useless.”

British Transport Police called the behaviour “totally unacceptable” and said it “will not be tolerated”.

In a tweet the force said they are now investigating what happened.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in June there had been a spike in the number of racist incidents recorded since the London Bridge attack.

The latest stats showed a rise in Islamophobic incidents with 54 racist offences recorded on Monday, June 5 up from the previous daily average of 38.

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