SIX PEOPLE HAVE been arrested by detectives investigating a serious assault on a teenage asylum seeker in London on Friday.
Four men and two women were arrested late yesterday at addresses in Croydon and taken into custody at a south London police station. They are all aged in their early 20s and were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and violent disorder.
Police have appealed for witnesses to the attack, which is being treated as a suspected hate crime. They received reports of a group of young people attacking a male in Croydon at around 11.40pm on Friday.
Police officers and London Ambulance Service personnel attended the scene and found a 17-year-old male suffering from serious assault-related injuries. He was taken to a south London hospital, where he remains.
The Met Police said the victim’s condition is serious but stable, and not believed to be life-threatening.
Serious head injuries
Detective Sergeant Kris Blamires said: “At this early stage it is believed that about eight suspects approached the victim as he waited at a bus stop with two friends outside the Goat Public House in the Shrublands.
It is understood that the suspects asked the victim where he was from and when they established that he was an asylum seeker they chased him and launched a brutal attack. He has sustained serious head and facial injuries as a result of this attack, which included repeated blows to the head by a large group of attackers.
“A number of people came to the aid of the victim as he lay unconscious and injured following the assault. The suspects are believed to have made off in the direction of the Goat Pub, Broom Road following the attack.
“I would encourage all those who came to his aid and those in the immediate area who witnessed the attack or saw the males leave the scene to get in touch. All communities stand together against hate and we would ask anyone with any information to come forward immediately,” Blamires said.
The two male friends of the victim managed to escape the attackers and only suffered minor injuries.
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