The Victorian premier has condemned an attack on two Muslim women at a shopping centre in Melbourne’s north.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The Victorian Premier has described the attacks on two Muslim women at a shopping complex
00:07as evil.
00:08Now, these attacks occurred on Thursday last week at the Epping Plaza in Melbourne's north.
00:14And a 27-year-old young mother was on her lunch break when she says she was thrown to
00:19the ground.
00:20She said she suffered memory loss and was extremely traumatised after the incident.
00:26We also know that just minutes before that, a pregnant 30-year-old woman who was also
00:31wearing a hijab was attacked by the same offender.
00:35It's understood that she says that she had her scarf pulled and was choked.
00:40They were both transported to Northern Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, but you
00:45can see that they were heavily bruised.
00:48Police say that they will be increasing patrols at that shopping complex, but have laid no
00:53charges yet.
00:54They also say they'll be combing through CCTV in their investigations.
00:58But police say that this was a prejudice-motivated attack and they believe it was targeted because
01:04both women were wearing head coverings.
01:06The reports of the evil attacks on two young Muslim women are just horrific.
01:14This sort of evil hatred, in this instance Islamophobia, has absolutely no place in our
01:21community.
01:22We have zero tolerance for this.
01:24We've heard from the Premier, Jacinta Allen, calling these attacks evil, but we've also
01:28seen the outrage from the Muslim community, including the Islamophobia Register of Australia,
01:34who have said that they've seen a 510% increase in Islamophobic-related incidents after the
01:41Israel-Gaza war.
01:43We've also heard from the Australian National Imams Council, who say that they've seen a
01:46horrifying escalation in targeted attacks against innocent people based on their faith.
01:53The 27-year-old victim in these attacks said that she was unable to stand after the incident
01:59and she also said that she felt unable to leave her house alone and is extremely scared
02:04and shocked by it.
02:06She said that she explained her story on an online community forum the day after it happened,
02:11but said that she received multiple death threats following that.
02:15So she is pleading to the police to try and find the person accountable, the Muslim community
02:20and the Premier as well, hoping for swift response to find that person responsible and
02:26to quickly lay some charges.