In London, an Indian origin business owner named Nerali Patel was viciously attacked by a ‘6-foot tall British man’ on Sunday amid the looming fuel crisis in the country. As per reports, Patel was first assaulted with a petrol nozzle and pushed violently to the ground by the man. The man also allegedly repeatedly called her “Paki”, a British racist slang for Pakistani people.
As per reports, Nerali Patel, 38 and a mother of 2, who runs a BP petrol station at Haverstock Hill, North London, was attacked and violently pushed to the ground by the British man. She was shoved to the floor so hard that her head could be seen bouncing off the ground in the CCTV footage from the station.
She was rushed to the hospital after passers-by stopped to intervene. The attacker was arrested at the scene on Sunday. As per reports, the attack was the second violent incident at the same station on that day. Just 2 hours prior, Nerali had to step in break the fight between two customers when one moped driver started kicking another.
Nerali Patel has suffered a concussion on the head due to the attack. She had also suffered a laceration in her hand when she fell.
https://twitter.com/RashmiDVS/status/1443481779533402113?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe attacker was angry because there was no fuel
Nerali Patel runs a BP petrol filling station in London and her station has been designated as one of the priority fuel delivery sites for emergency service vehicles in the British capital city.
As reported by The Sun, on Sunday, after they ran out of petrol, Nerali had asked her staff to close the station and had gone to put bags on the nozzles to indicate that fuel is over. Two moped drivers had driven in at that time, demanding fuel.
One of the men refused to believe Nerali that petrol is over and started abusing her, “fu**ing P*ki, I know you are lying, you have got fuel, you f**cking scumbag.”
When Nerali tried to explain to the customer that there is no more petrol available, the man reportedly got angry and put the nozzle on her face saying, “I am having it, you f**cking P*ki.” The man then whacked Nerali on her face and shoved her back, causing her fall. The man allegedly kept lunging at Nerali but was luckily held back by persons present at the scene.
Metropolitan police later revealed that they had arrested a man from that petrol station on Sunday on charges of assault and aggravated racial offence. He was released later but is under investigation.
Fuel crisis in UK, panic buying causes stations to run dry
The UK is going through a serious fuel crisis. Though the government has been saying that there is enough fuel available, a shortage of truck drivers due to Brexit, the pandemic and several reasons has created a logistics and supply crisis. As per reports, the lack of fuel at stations is causing brawls and public disorder in several locations.
Recently, it was reported that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could consider calling in the British army to deliver fuel to petrol stations running dry across the country. However, Environment Secretary George Eustice asserted that the shortage of drivers was “not a huge problem”.
“The only reason we don’t have petrol on forecourts is people are buying petrol when they don’t need it,” said Eustice.