Hindu girl attacked in London

LONDON, OCT. 18. A Hindu girl in Derby suffered head and spine injuries as a ten- member gang of Muslim youth went on a rampage smashing windows and assaulting staff and pupils at a school, police said today.

The fifteen-year-old, Ms. Radhika Shukla, who suffered a fractured skull, internal bleeding in her ear, a black eye and bruises on her back and shoulders, said the attack followed an argument at the Moor community school among three girls last week over the issue of race and the events of September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Ms. Shukla said inter-racial tension had increased in the school since the U.S. attacks and bombing of Afghanistan.

Muslim youths had sprayed graffiti supporting Osama bin Laden on a school building and Muslim children from Derby moor had joined in the attack. Two members of the staff and four other pupils were injured, police said.

Recounting the incident, Ms. Shukla said she was walking to the dinner hall at the school when about ten youths burst in, smashing windows and assaulting people. She was chased, pushed to the floor and hit on the head with a hammer.

``I was crying and trying to roll up in a ball as he was hitting me. He was telling me he was going to kill me. I just closed my eyes and hoped he would stop.''

- PTI

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