Story By: Basant EssamSub-EditorMarija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

Cops in Leeds are investigating a complaint that a boozed-up man deliberately coughed on a pregnant Muslim woman in a hijab who was with her husband and child while shopping in the city.

The man who was apparently carrying a bottle of alcohol told them “there you go” after coughing on the family in late September shortly before lockdown restrictions took place in the city on September 25.

The couple who asked not to be named in order to avoid being targeted again by the man said they nevertheless decided to go public in case the man carried out another racist attack.

They were helped by the Tell MAMA NGO, that records racist attacks on Muslims and which helped the couple to file a complaint with West Yorkshire Police.

The organisation said they hoped that CCTV images would be able to track down the man and they said it was not the first case following an incident in March in which another man had coughed into the face of the Muslim woman and told her that he had the virus.

In the case of the latest incident, none of the family tested positive after the coughing attack, which says it was carried out by a white man in his mid to late 40s or possibly early 50s.

They said that after he had coughed on them, he had quickly walked off into the crowd and claimed he had targeted them because they were South Asian and because of the wife’s clothing.

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