The YouTube video of the brutal assault on a Malaysian student is the highest watched single clip of the recent rioting in London.
LONDON: According to British monitoring sources, the YouTube video clip of the brutal assault on and subsequent robbery of 20-year-old Malaysian student Mohd Asyraf Haziq Rosli in Barking, East London, has been watched nearly three million times.
This is the highest watched single clip of the recent rioting and looting in London and other cities of Britain, according to British sources.
“Word of mouth about the brutal attack on the Malaysian student has got around so fast that almost everybody I know wants to see the clip on YouTube. People have been moved by the student’s plight and the courageous front he has put up,” said Percy Higgins, a London-based chemist in a telephone interview with Bernama.
Asyraf, who was discharged from the hospital after surgery, told journalists that he had no grudge or ill-feeling against Britons.
He said that he would pursue his higher studies in accounting in London. Asyraf’s parents had urged their son to return to Malaysia and continue his studies here.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has also apparently seen the film, described the attack on the Malaysian student as a “defining moment”, condemning it as “sick” and “disgusting”.
Describing the rioting as “criminality, pure and simple”, Cameron announced a series of measures aimed at bringing to justice all those who were behind the attack, saying that the perpetrators would be punished according to the law.
Cowardly act
The first arrest in connection with the attack on and robbery of Asyraf has been made.
Reese Donovan, who appears to be in his early 20s and lives near East London, was charged with robbing Asyraf of his Nokia mobile phone and a Sony PSP console.
Donovan is allegedly one of the gang members who, posing as good Samaritans, helped the Malaysian student get up from the ground where he lay bleeding after his jaw was broken by street marauders in an earlier attack on him.
The footage of the clip showed that Donovan, instead of helping him, allegedly rummaged through Asyraf’s rucksack and removed the items as other members distracted him. The items removed from Asyraf’s rucksack were said to be worth 300 pounds.
Asyraf was riding a bicycle on his way to meet a friend when he was attacked by a gang of boys. His bicycle was stolen by a boy who, Asyraf estimated, was not older than 12.
In an outpouring seldom witnessed in Britain for a foreigner, Britons criticised the cowardly act and the even “more sickening robbery of the poor victim”.
A website has been set up called “Let’s Do Something Nice For Asyraf Haziq” to raise money for him.
A message on the website announced that almost 4,000 pounds had been donated by Wednesday night.
Doctors have put a metal plate in his jaw which, Asyraf said, “is so far good”.
