Indian-origin woman thrashed for saving Chinese from racist attack in UK

London, February 24

An Indian-origin woman trainee lawyer in the UK fell unconscious after being beaten up by an unidentified man when she tried to save her Chinese friend from a racist attack over coronavirus, media reports said on Monday.

The incident took place when Meera Solanka (29) from England’s Solihull town was out with her friends, including her Chinese friend Mandy Huang (28) from London, celebrating her 29th birthday in Midlands region. Solanka was knocked unconscious and hospitalised after she stepped in when Mandy was told, “Take your f****** coronavirus back home!”, Birmingham Mail newspaper reported.

Mandy was accused of carrying the virus outside Birmingham’s Ana Rocha Bar and Gallery on Frederick Street in the early hours of February 9. “I was having birthday drinks with a group of girls and guys, including Chinese friends. There was 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. For some reason he got really angry with her (Mandy) and started abusing her, calling her a dirty chink,” she said. A spokeswoman for Birmingham Chinese Society said, "There has always been abuse. The virus has given some individuals a reason for that abuse." A West Midlands Police spokeswoman said: "We're investigating after a woman was assaulted after another was racially abused in Frederick Street, Hockley. — PTI

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