UK: India-born football fan bashed up in racist attack, about 200 onlookers do nothing

London: A 56-year-old India-born football fan was beaten up badly by seven men and punched in the face and head more than 18 times on a packed tram in UK, as 200 onlookers did nothing to save him from the racist attackers.

Prakash Patel, a bank officer, was travelling home along with his 21-year-old daughter Devyani Patel after watching a football match when he was beaten up, leaving him with black eyes and concussion, local media reported on Sunday.

"The tram carriage was so full of people that the battered bank worker stayed upright after he was knocked out. Yet only his distraught daughter Devyani tried to push the attackers away from her father," the Mirror reported.

When 56-year-old Prakash told the men making racists remarks to \'behave\', they beat him up mercilessly.

"I thought my dad was going to die. I was trying to pull these men off him, but no one intervened. It's disgusting, nobody did anything," Devyani said, adding she felt as if she was in a TV drama as passengers pushed forward to get a better view in Stretford, Greater Manchester. Prakash, a Manchester United fan, was left with black eyes, a swollen face and concussion.

"These men came on and started making indecent racist comments... Myself and my daughter felt distressed about it so I said 'please behave' and that's when it started," he said.

"They were hitting me in the face, the eyes, the head... There must have been more than 200 people just in our carriage but nobody did anything or said anything. They all just stood and watched us," Prakash was quoted as saying by the Mirror.

Devyani, an estate agent who lives with her parents in New Moston, took her dad to hospital where he was treated for concussion and given a scan. "We are big United fans and have been going to Old Trafford for 25 years and never had any trouble... But I will only ever watch Manchester United in a box now. Never again will I sit in the stands," Prakash added.

In the CCTV footage showed at the police station, the passengers were seen jumping up to get a better view of the attack on him in the tram. Greater Manchester Police are appealing for witnesses to the attack, which happened after the United versus Fulham match on January 26.

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