A trainee lawyer's recent birthday party in Birmingham ended on a “horrifying” note as she was “knocked unconscious”, after standing up against a thug who racially abused her Chinese friend.
Meera Solanki, 29, from Solihull, was with her friends recently at the Rocha Bar and Gallery in the city centre when a man of Asian origin started troubling her.
“There were a group of Asian men inside the venue - one of them kept coming up to me and harassing me. He seemed to have a problem with me being an Indian girl with a multi-racial group of friends,” she told the Sunday Mercury.
Solanki added that her group “tried to ignore him, even when he tried to spit at one of my friends”.
As the “man came over again and was being aggressive”, Solanki and friends left the bar.
But he allegedly followed them, and started racially abusing Mandy Huang, 28.
Said Solanki: “For some reason he got really angry with her He started abusing her calling her a dirty c****.
“He said ‘take your f****** Coronavirus and take it back home’.”
Solanki, who was “shocked and horrified”, shouted at the man to stop and tried to push him away.
“He punched me in the head, I hit the pavement and was knocked unconscious,” she said.
She said the man “continued to threaten my friends and abuse them before walking away calmly with his group of friends who did nothing to stop him or help me”.
A witness described the scene as “beyond despicable” and “a totally vicious assault”.
An ambulance rushed Solanki to Heartlands Hospital, where she was treated for concussion.
A West Midlands Police statement said: “We're investigating after a woman was assaulted after another was racially abused in Frederick Street, Hockley, around 2am on Sunday 9 February.
“A man made racist remarks to one woman and after he was asked to stop he punched another female, in her 20s, in the face.
“She was temporarily knocked unconscious but escaped without serious injury.
“The attacker is described as Asian, 5ft 8ins, of large build and was wearing a flat cap and hoodie at the time.”
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