White woman filmed shouting racist abuse and hitting an Asian woman on a New York train

A video of a white woman shouting racist abuse at an Asian woman on a busy New York subway train, and then being placed under citizen's arrest, has gone viral on Twitter.

The incident is said to have occurred on a Transit District 34 train in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning and happened after the woman, identified as 40-year-old Anna Lushchinskaya, bumped into the 24-year-old Asian woman, whose name has not been disclosed.

Rather than apologise for what had happened, Lushchinskaya started yelling expletives and physically assaulting the other woman. Their altercation escalated to the point where they were separated and Lushchinskaya called her a racial slur.

The entire incident was filmed by a Twitter user, Juan Ayala, who shared the footage on social media, and then images of him restraining the woman, while waiting for the police to arrive at the scene and arrest her.

A separate video of Ayala confronting Lushchinskaya was filmed by another passenger, where she continued to shout racist abuse and attempt to assault him.

The NYPD transit police later confirmed on Wednesday that Lushchinskaya was arrested and charged with felony assault.

Speaking afterwards to ABC7,the victim of the assault, who wished to remain anonymous and did suffer lacerations to the face, said she was traumatised but grateful for the people that intervened and helped her.

I’m lucky that she didn’t have anything like weapons on her—like knife, gun—because it could have got a lot worse.

I’m lucky that people were on the train who were helping me, especially the first Asian guy who stood in front of me right away because he wasn't recording.

He just stood in front of me to help me, because I know other people were recording, but their recording didn't do anything until later on when it escalated.

Coming home, I couldn't breathe. Every time I have to get a train, I'm really careful where I'm watching.

Ayala, who was also scratched during the incident, also told ABC7 that the incident was traumatising.

It's something that can almost be traumatizing, honestly.

It's not a situation that anybody should be involved in, especially a little girl.

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