A woman who was the target of racial abuse on a Sydney bus last week has told SBS the attack left her "outraged and stunned".
The 29-year-old Chinese-born woman, who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation, spoke of the ten-minute ordeal that occurred on a bus near the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst at the weekend.
The incident began after she moved down the crowded bus to stand at the back, near four young girls who appeared to be in their early teens.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
“I heard they were yelling: 'Asian ****, go back to your country, Asian prostitute'.”
At first, she says, she didn't realise the taunts were directed towards her.
“I was very surprised so I turned back to look at them, and actually they were yelling at me.”
“I was quite angry, so I responded, and now a little bit I regret it because I underestimated the situation.”
“I stood up for myself, I said 'You're young ladies, you need to behave yourself'. That comment really escalated the situation. They got really excited, started waving; yelling.”
The woman says the girls took her wallet from her bag and kicked her in the stomach when she tried to retrieve it from under a seat, an action that left her “beyond stunned”.
At that point, she says, other passengers intervened. Some called the police while others helped her move to the front of the bus, where she stood close to the driver.
“Other passengers signalled me to leave that area and move to the front of the bus and they suggest I could press charges, because actually the CCTV caught everything.”
The driver was also helpful once he became aware of incident, she says.
“The bus driver didn't realise how serious the situation was. The bus driver stopped the bus and asked them to leave and they refused in the beginning.”
The woman, who has lived in Australia for more than eight years, says she understood why some passengers were reluctant to intervene directly to stop the behaviour of the young girls.
“Probably the people around me in the backseat area, they just didn't want to get involved,” she says.
"But in the whole situation, I definitely got the support later."
She added that she would also be reluctant to intervene if she was a witness instead of a victim.
"If I was a martial art master, I probably would, but until I'm very competent in my physical ability to control the situation, I think I won't get involved. You shouldn't put yourself in danger."
Earlier this month, passengers on board a Melbourne train united to defend a man being verbally abused, while in Sydney an Asian couple were racially abused by a man on board a bus.
In February, ABC News presenter Jeremy Fernandez tweeted about a tirade of abuse -- including racist attacks -- he suffered while traveling with his young daughter on a Sydney bus.
