World
14:57, 28-Oct-2017
Police officers passively responds to severe street attack over Chinese students
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Two Chinese high school students were attacked by local teenagers in Canberra's Woden busiest bus interchange on Monday, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The group of local youngsters first came to Chinese students for cigarettes but got the answer “no.” So they shouted to Chinese students with racist words and asked them to “get back to China”. As two parties were in tension, a dozen of local youngsters joined the fight.
Photo of local teenagers who attacked Chinese students at Canberra. /WeChat public account Dacancun
Photo of local teenagers who attacked Chinese students at Canberra. /WeChat public account Dacancun
Two students were severely wounded. One of them was then sent to Canberra Hospital and stayed hospitalized for two nights, as one of his eyes were temporarily blind.
Even though the bus interchange is one-minute walk away to a police station, the policemen arrived seven minutes later on that day – and attackers had already left from the spot.
Injured student. /WeChat public account Dacancun
Injured student. /WeChat public account Dacancun
The tragedy did not end, similar incidents continuously happened in the following three days. The group of 30 youngsters assaulted Chinese students for a couple of times.
“The bus interchange is a must pass-by spot for students in our high school,” an anonymous Chinese student told blogger Sydney Today.
Injured student. /WeChat public account Dacancun
Injured student. /WeChat public account Dacancun
“Da Kan Cun”, a Chinese public account on WeChat interviewed victims who were traced by local teenagers. They said they had to hide in a Chinese restaurant to get rid of them.
They attempted to seek help from the policemen but get refused. “They said they have more important cases to deal with and they could not do too much about teenagers,” said one anonymous victim.
English language media, such as Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Canberra Time then picked up this story after it went around on Chinese language media.
Chinese Embassy's official statement on October 26. /CGTN Photo
Chinese Embassy's official statement on October 26. /CGTN Photo
Embassy of China in Australia soon paid attention to this horrible incident, requesting local police station to make a response and give an explanation to injured students. In the meantime, the ambassador indicated injured students can request compensation from the local government.
On Thursday, Chinese embassy issued a second statement, condemning violent attack over Chinese students and asked local government to take actions to protect Chinese students physical security.