A Chinese-Australian woman has been left bloodied after an alleged violent, racist attack near Burwood shopping mall, a Sydney suburb with a large Chinese Australian population.
Lina told Chinese language media Sydney Today she was waiting to cross the road near the mall early last month when a Caucasian-looking man began to verbally assault her.
He allegedly yelled, “a series of insulting words and … [to] ‘get out of my country’”, and although Lina tried to walk away, the man stopped her and punched her in the face.
Lina immediately called the police and the man fled before they arrived.
A witness told SBS Mandarin that she was driving past the incident when she slowed down and honked her horn to get the attention of other drivers.
“I was thinking that if someone would get out of their car to intervene, I may get out my car too,” she said.
When the attacker heard her horn, he reportedly started hitting her windows and shouting at her.
Scared for her children in the back seat and conscious of “a line of cars behind me,” the witness, who wished not to be named, said she had to drive away.
She drove back to check on Lina because she felt she couldn’t “leave the poor girl alone,” who was already being helped by other witnesses and left her details with the victim.
After not being contacted by Burwood police, the witness phoned the station to express her willingness to corroborate Lina’s version of events.
Lina told Sydney Today that due to the inflammatory rhetoric, she believes the incident was “a severe racial attack” as opposed to an ordinary assault.
The anonymous witness told SBS Mandarin, “Even if it is not considered as a racial attack, I think we still need to be concerned. I hope my witness [evidence] can help the police to fast track the case.”
