SYDNEY (Yonhap News) ― A South Korean student staying in Melbourne was severely wounded after being assaulted by a group of Australian adolescents there, consular officials said Wednesday.
The 33-year-old South Korean man surnamed Chang was attacked on Sep. 27 at a park near his school in the southern Australian city by several local teenagers, who cut off a joint of his little finger and broke his left arm, according to the officials.
“When I was sitting in the park with my friend, more than 10 white teenagers came to me and asked for money and cigarettes. As I said no and was trying to leave, they flew at me and violently beat me with weapons,” Chang said. “One of them hurled racially discriminating insults at me.”
After losing consciousness, he was taken to a nearby hospital and underwent emergency surgery, he said. He has been staying in Australia since July to attend a technical school there.
“I’ve heard of racial discrimination in this country, but I’ve never thought of being victimized by this kind of attack in the early evening at a park in the center of the city,” he said.
South Korea’s consular office in Melbourne said it has been “trying to find exactly what happened to him and help him in every aspect.”
The Australian police and officials in charge of the case were not immediately available for comment, while Chang said the Australian authorities “regarded the case not as a racist attack but as simple juvenile delinquency.”
(Yonhap News)
