A 22-year-old Sikh nurse of Indian origin was left with a broken nose after being assaulted in a racially motivated attack at a gym in Melbourne’s Corio suburb late on Tuesday night.
Harmanpreet Singh said three men brutally attacked him during his training session at the gym, which began around 11 pm. He recounted that they started verbally abusing him inside the facility before physically assaulting him.
The racially charged comments left Harmanpreet stunned, as he had never faced such hostility before.
As he tried to leave the gym, the men who had verbally abused him inside were waiting outside.
Harmanpreet said he was called an “Indian dog” and told to “go back to where you came from”. One of the men then headbutted him in the nose, causing profuse bleeding.
“He got really close to my face and then just got really back and hit his head on my nose,” Harmanpreet told reporters later.
Locals who spotted him outside the facility rushed him to the hospital, where he is likely to undergo surgery. Harmanpreet said the incident had left him “shocked and traumatised".
“Nobody wants to hear it. Especially when you’re just minding your own business,” he added.
He noted that verbal abuse had become somewhat normal, but the physical assault was deeply alarming for him and others in similar situations.
“I try to keep myself strong and not care about such things, but it hurts,” he said, adding, “I don’t know if I am going to go back to the gym… I am not going to feel safe after this.”
Similar racist attacks have risen against Hindu temples and the Sikh community across Australia. In one recent incident, a racially charged mob vandalised the Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Melbourne, triggering panic and chaos among community members.
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