Brisbane manhunt launched for group of teens suspected of racial attack on Taiwanese visitors at Southbank: ‘Got beaten up just because we are Asians’
Police are looking for four people who allegedly stalked, harassed and beat up a group of Taiwanese because of their ethnicity.
Wu Aiting was walking with three friends, in their early 20s, when they were attacked by four people, two men and two women, in Brisbane’s Southbank district on Monday evening.
Ms Aiting said the group followed them along the Brisbane River, shouting racist comments, throwing stones and asking them to fight.
One of the victims posted a video of the harassment on Instagram.
“We got beat up just because we’re Asians,” the caption read.
Wu Aiting (front, centre) was walking with three friends, in their early 20s, when they were attacked by four people, two women and two men, in Southbank on Monday evening.
Mrs Aiting told 7News that she and her friends tried to run away but were unable to escape the alleged attackers who gave chase.
“We didn’t say anything and then they started shouting at us and calling us Chinese names,” she said.
“When they were talking behind us it sounded like [the] devil, it was really scary.”
In the video, one of the attackers can be heard challenging one of Ms Aiting’s male friends to fight him. He repeatedly refuses before being dragged to the ground.
Two of Ms Aiting’s friends were injured in the attack, which hit one woman in the nose and the other in the eye.
When Ms Aiting tried to help her friend off the ground, she said she was also ‘hit on the head’ by the group.
The friend who was hit in the eye was unable to open it after the attackers fled the scene and his glasses were broken, she added.
No weapons were used in the attack.
Footage of the attack was posted to Instagram by one of the victims and has since gone viral in Taiwan
Footage of the incident has gone viral in Taiwan and has been shown on several news sites and television stations.
Wayne Ko of the Queensland Federation of Taiwanese Associations said the video was particularly worrying for people from Taiwan.
‘[The] The Taiwanese community is losing confidence in the Queensland Police Service,” he said.
Officers are now actively searching for the attackers and have said they are following all leads. viewing camera images and speaking to witnesses.
Police say they consider the case a priority.