Three Bangladeshi international students say they are too frightened to go back to the Melbourne CBD after allegedly being attacked by a gang of Africans.
The trio were working as Uber Eats delivery drivers on Swanston St when five African men approached them at about 2.10am.
The men allegedly demanded cigarettes before threatening to kill their targets, punching and kicking them, and trying to steal their ebikes.
Video shows one of the Africans kicking one of them men, who tries to take refuge in a Mexican restaurant, while other footage shows the African group circling the Bangladeshis in the street and allegedly assaulting them during 15 minutes of terror.
One of the victims, Alif Himel, told 7 News: “They were saying ‘I have a knife, I have broken glass, I will kill you, I can kill you, don’t push back’.”
“They chased me and they tried to push me onto the roadside, and they were punching me on my back.
Mr Himel’s friend say they were “very scared” and described being kicked and punched in the face, and now fear if they return to work in the CBD they might run into the thugs again.
The attack comes amid an African crime wave in Melbourne in recent months.
Last week a 13-year-old girl was hospitalised after being bashed by 15 Sudanese students at her high school, African teenagers fought each other with machetes on Anzac Day, and a gang of Africans smashed up a man’s car during a botched Facebook Marketplace robbery days before that.
