Fourth S. Korean assaulted in Australia in three months

A South Korean female student in the Australian city of Gold Coast was injured after being assaulted by a group of local youths earlier this week, the victim and police officers here said Friday, a fourth such unprovoked attack against Korean nationals in three months.

The 28-year-old South Korean woman, whose identity was withheld, was assaulted by three local residents at around 9 p.m. on Tuesday on her way home from her school in Gold Coast. 

"On my way home after having dinner with my friends after school, one local girl yelled at me from behind. When I yelled back, the other 17-year-old girl suddenly came over to me and beat me in the face and head more than 30 times," she recalled. "That broke my nose bone and tore my lip."

When she tried to report the case to police, a white man from the assailants' group took her cell phone away, she said, adding no one listened to her screaming for help, though she was surrounded by many passers-by.

Police later arrived at the scene, and arrested and indicted one of the assailants, according to officials there.

The unprovoked attack comes less than a week after a similar assault in Brisbane, where a South Korean man was assaulted by two white youths. In September and October, two such assault cases took place in Melbourne and Sydney. Some suspect these attacks have been motivated by racism.

"There are more than 140,000 South Koreans in Australia. We have requested the Australian authorities to launch a thorough investigation into the case, while leaving open every possibility, including racist attacks," an official at Seoul's foreign ministry said.

(Yonhap News)