The British Transport Police are investigating a racially aggravated assault after a man allegedly pulled off a Muslim woman’s hijab on a London underground platform.
The police force said they were appealing for witnesses of the attack, which is alleged to have taken place on Saturday morning.
A person who said they are a friend of victim tweeted about what happened, saying that after the hijab was pulled off by a man on the platform, she tried to call for help but nobody came.
The tweet read: “She pressed the emergency button 3 times and no one came down to the platform to help. Everyone watched and did absolutely nothing!”
She also tagged Transport for London (TFL), London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Labour MP David Lammy, asking: “Is this London?”
Lammy responded, offering to help and said: “This sounds horrific.”
TFL responded asking the woman and told her to contact the police, and said they would look into why no-one responded to the emergency button.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen in the UK since a white supremacist gunned down 50 worshippers in two mosques in New Zealand. In the week that followed the attack, the . independent monitoring group TellMAMA said they received 593% more reports of incidents of hate crime.
Tell Mama usually receives reports of about 30-35 incidents a week, but 95 were reported to the group between 15 March, the day of the New Zealand atrocity, and midnight on 21 March.
On the day of the attack, Fiyaz Mughal, the group’s founder, told HuffPost UK the level of fear has “significantly increased” among the British Muslim community.
Several North London Labour groups including Crouch End Labour and Haringey Labour have organised a protest vigil on Monday night outside the tube station, in solidarity with the victim.
“We cannot stand by when racist attacks happen in this toxic hostile environment,” the organisers said.
A spokeswoman for the police force said: “British Transport Police are investigating following a report of a racially aggravated assault at Turnpike Lane station at around 10.45am on 30 March.
She added that they take all reports “very seriously” and appealed for anyone who witnessed what happened to contact them.
Brian Woodhead, director of customer service for London Underground, said: “This sounds like a dreadful incident. We never tolerate hostile and violent behaviour on our network.
“All of our customers have the right to travel without fear of verbal or physical abuse. We are doing everything we can to support the BTP’s investigation.”