A Muslim nurse was viciously beaten by a gang in a daylight street attack, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Qaiser Hamid, 37, was set upon by up to nine yobs while he was shopping in Stockport town centre on Friday.
A teenage girl shouted about his facial hair and racially abused him before her male friends began punching him in the face.
Qaiser, who was standing outside Jake Shoes on Princes Street, needed hospital treatment for cuts and bruising to his face including a deep gash to the nose.
Mr Hamid said he doesn’t want to go back into Stockport town centre after the attack. He now says he is too frightened to go out.
Shop staff called police and Qaiser, from Heaton Norris, has been left angered as the gang loitered nearby and continued to shout threats while he waited for police.
He said: “I got punched by one of them and I tried to defend myself then they were all hitting me – I took lots of blows. The shop was covered in blood as I was bleeding all over the place. It was completely unprovoked.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
“I don’t feel good and I don’t want to go back to Stockport. I have been really affected psychologically and struggle to go out of the house.
“I had to go to the hospital and I wore a hooded top because I feel self-conscious and don’t want people passing judgement.”
Qaiser, who is a mental health nurse, had been out shopping with his wife Farah, also 37.
He had stepped outside the shop to use his phone when the girl began abusing him and making comments about his beard.
Qaiser, a British Pakistani, said: “It was definitely racially motivated, they kept mentioning my beard, my wife was wearing a headscarf and they kept using the P-word.”
The members of the gang are described as white and aged 15 to 17.
Among those who attacked Qaiser were a male, 5ft 6in tall, wearing a blue coat and hooded top and another wearing a grey sweatshirt and gold chain.
A gash to his nose plus other cuts and bruises were sustained during unprovoked attack
Inspector Stephen Gilbertson from Stockport police said his records show officers arrived in around 15 minutes.
Dispersal orders are now in place so police can remove anyone behaving anti-socially and arrest them if they return.
Inspector Gilbertson added: “We’ve had quite a lot of youths congregating around Stockport centre over the last week and it culminated with this incident.
“Officers got to it as quickly as they could but had a lot of other incidents to deal with around the same time.”
