Muslim student's 'niqab veil ripped off' in attack at King's College London

A spokesperson for The Met Police told The Independent that two men have been arrested in connection with the incident

The alleged incident reportedly took place at King's College London's Strand campus (Google Maps)

Two men have been arrested after a student was reportedly the victim of an attack in which her niqab veil was torn off, it has been reported.

The alleged incident happened last Friday when a group of students were hosting an Islamic society stall at King’s College London’s Strand Campus. According to student paper Roar!, two men approached the stall and confronted them in an aggressive manner. Over the course of an altercation which lasted half an hour, female students hosting the stall were reportedly subjected to racist taunts and one woman’s niqab veil was torn off by one of the men.

Hareen Ghani from the university’s Islamic Society told The Evening Standard that the men asked the students: “Why are you wearing that on your face?”.

Subsequently, “It escalated from there and one of them reached out to the sisters and pulled off her niqab,” Ms Ghani added.

Geography student Mahamed Abdullahi witnessed the alleged incident and said: “They were looming over the women and moving towards them and being very aggressive, which is why security were called.”

A spokesperson for King’s College said: “We are mindful of concerns raised around this incident and would like to reassure our staff and students that the safety and security of our campuses is of the utmost importance.

“… We will continue to support the police in their investigation, which will take precedence over our own proceedings. However, we will also be reviewing the incident, including the CCTV evidence, to establish precisely what happened and further improve student safety on campus.”

A spokesperson for The Met Police told The Independent: “Police were called at approximately 13:10hrs on Friday, 4 March to reports of two males making racially aggravated and homophobic comments in Strand, WC2.

“Officers attended and two men, aged 39 and 41, were arrested under section 4 of the Public Order Act. Both were taken into custody at a central London police station and have been bailed pending further enquiries to a date in early May.”