London, July 17 (RHC)-- A man tried to pull off a Muslim woman's hijab as she was waiting for the train and spat at her friend’s face at the subway in the British capital London, says the victim.  Aniso Abdulkadir reported the suspected hate crime on Twitter on Sunday, triggering an investigation into the matter. 

She posted a picture of the alleged attacker, writing: “This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me.”  She added: “He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face.” 

Abdulkadir’s effort to identify the attacker was welcome on Twitter with more than 24,000 re-tweets by Sunday afternoon.  “Behavior like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” said a British Transport Police spokesman, according to The Guardian.  “This incident has been reported to us and we’re investigating.” 

The alleged attacker surfaced on Twitter later, claiming that he was defending his partner from some “racist attack,” rejecting Abdulkadir’s allegations as “completely false.”  “I would like to confirm I never hit or attacked anyone I simply defused the situation by separating them,” said Pawel Uczciwek.  “The police is fully cooperating with me and will be able to obtain CCTV footage showing the three women attempting to attack my partner because we are in an interracial relationship.” 

The allegations were made as the UK was facing a surge in hate crimes in the wake of some terrorist attacks.