Police hunt man who 'tried to pull off woman's hijab' at Baker Street Tube station

Police are investigating a suspected hate crime after a man tried to pull off a Muslim woman's hijab and spat at her friend.

The woman, who posted about the incident on Twitter, was waiting for a Tube at Baker Street in the early hours of Saturday morning when she was set upon.

Tweeting under the name Aniso Abdulkadir, she posted a picture of the man who allegedly attacked her, writing: "This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me."

She continued: 

Ms Abdulkadir added that a woman who was present was also threatened and verbally abusive.

She urged others to share the image in order to identify the suspect, earning more than 24,000 retweets by Sunday afternoon.

A man claiming to be the man in the image later identified himself on Twitter and hit back at the allegations.  

Pawel Uczciwek, 28, from London, said he was sticking up for his girlfriend and attempting to defuse what he called a "racist attack from three random females".

Mr Uczciwek wrote: "I would like to confirm I never hit or attacked anyone I simply defused the situation by separating them.

"The police is fully cooperating with me and will be able to obtain CCTV footage showing the three women attempting to attack my partner because we are in an interracial relationship."

A British Transport Police spokesman said the force were investigating the incident and had been sent the statement from Mr Uczciwek.

The BBTP spokesman added the matter is being treated as a hate crime.

"Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This incident has been reported to us and we're investigating."

Inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to get in touch by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40.