Police are investigating a suspected hate crime after a man allegedly tried to pull off a Muslim woman's hijab while she was waiting for a tube train.
The woman, Aniso Abdulkadir, tweeted about the horrific incident shortly after it occurred at Baker Street station on Saturday morning. Sharing a picture of her alleged attacker, she wrote: "This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me."
She added: "He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face."
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At the time of writing, her tweet featuring the man's face has been retweeted more than 31,000 times. A British Transport Police spokesman has confirmed that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime, telling the BBC: "Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This incident has been reported to us and we’re investigating."
Anyone who has any information relating to the alleged attack is asked to text 61016 or call 0800 40 50 40.
The alleged attack comes after Metropolitan Police found that Islamophobic hate crimes increased fivefold in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack, The Independent reports.