A woman was left ‘traumatised’ after suffering injuries in an alleged racially aggravated attack in Sheffield.
The incident took place last Friday at just after 7.30pm at the Cathedral tram stop in the city centre.
The victim suffered minor injuries following the incident and was treated at the Northern General Hospital.
The 21-year-old victim who did not want to be named said: “ He approached and attacked me, verbally insulted me and used racial slurs.
“He spat at me five or six times, and smashed me with a shoulder bag that he had with him during the incident. I fought back, but I have extensions on my nails so I broke four of my own nails and bled while I was punching him.”
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “At 7.41pm on Friday 3 May we responded to reports of a racially aggravated assault.
“It is reported that an unknown man racially abused a 21-year-old woman at Cathedral tram stop in Sheffield City Centre.”
The victim said the incident has had an impact on her mental health and that she needed to meet with her therapist and psychiatrist.
She said: “Because I have severe depression, I had a panic attack after this incident.
“There were people standing all around me, but no one gave me any help, everyone turned a blind eye.
“I was traumatised by this awful experience, but no support was offered to me afterwards.”
She said: “I will now avoid going out at night and going out by myself, if this happens to anyone else, I don’t recommend fighting back if you’re a girl on your own.”
A total of 34 incidents which took place in the same area in March were reported to South Yorkshire Police, seven of which were anti-social behaviour related, according to statistics from Police UK.
On the South Yorkshire Police website, there were 4,366 hate crimes cases reported last year, racially motivated hate crimes accounted for 66% of the total recorded hate crimes.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact police on 101 quoting incident number 914 of 3 May 2024.