Man disappears after setting Muslim woman on fire
A 35-year-old woman dressed in a hijab was standing outside a store on a crowded street when she noticed her dress on fire.
According to what the Muslim woman later told the police, a man had used a lighter to set the woman’s clothes on fire.
The man is yet to be identified or arrested, police say.
The incident, which police are treating as a hate crime, happened outside a Valentino store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York on Saturday night.
The woman said she, after noticing the fire, saw a man holding a lighter.
“The male doesn’t say anything and walks away,” New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesman Christopher Pisano told The Washington Post.
The Muslim woman was reportedly visiting the US from Scotland. Parts of her clothes were burnt but she suffered no bodily harm.
The attack comes just days after a Brooklyn woman allegedly beat two Muslim mothers as they pushed their toddlers in strollers down a busy sidewalk in Bath Beach.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the attack on the New York Muslim woman.
“We are clearly seeing a spike in attacks on individual Muslims and Islamic institutions in New York and around the country, which should be of concern to all Americans,” said Afaf Nasher, director of the group’s New York chapter.
“It is time for the mayor and the NYPD to put forward the necessary resources to investigate and prevent these attacks on the Muslim community.”
Police say they’ve launched a manhunt for the lighter-bearing attacker.
