Poochandi

May 02, 2010

In a fresh attack on Indian students in Australia, a 24-year-old student was brutally attacked in western Sydney.

According to 'Sydney Morning Herald' the victim was repeatedly hit and kicked by unidentified attackers on Apr 28.

However police claim that the attack was not racially motivated, the report said.

Police said that the student was hit from behind when he was walking along Amos Street, Westmead, in Sydney's west just after 7.30 pm local time.

The three attackers repeatedly hit him after he fell to the ground and stopped their assault only when a passing taxi stopped to help the victim.

In the absence of any evidence to term its a racial attack, Police crime manager Adam Phillips ruled out the racial motive behind the incident.

Phillips said that assailants did not say anything to their victim which could be termed as a racial abuse and could be considered as one of the series of robberies surrounding train stations in the area.

"There have been a number of problems with people being robbed and they (attackers) are simply belting them and taking their phone and wallet and they're off," he said adding there had been "a handful" of attacks on Indian students because they were "making themselves easy victims".

He said that the around 13 arrests have been by the police during the opertaions which they are carrying out to tackle street robberies in the past three weeks.

"Again, it's because a lot of them (victims) do shift work and are walking home to their units and they are making themselves easy victims," he said. "What we are doing is running operations at the moment trying to prevent these types of attacks and, on Monday, we are going to hand out safety flyers so they are aware of what is going on around them."