NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Brooklyn mother is recovering after being randomly attacked in a subway station.

The victim claims she suffered injuries so severe they required surgery, and now police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, CBS2’s Reena Roy reported Sunday.

Subway riders were fired up moments after police said 57-year-old Ann Marie Washington was attacked inside the Church Avenue subway station at around 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, saying the suspect, described as a white man in his 30s, yelled out racial slurs.

“The victim was hunched over. She couldn’t really stand up. She just seemed like in shock, really dazed and out of it,” witness Kezia Bernard-Nau said.

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Investigators said the suspect punched Washington in the mouth, cutting her lip. Her body was also bruised. She told CBS2’s Roy off camera he even stabbed her in the shoulder,

and that because of shock she didn’t realize until the next morning when she woke up in a pool of blood.

“Her daughter found her and was like we need to take you to hospital, like what is going on? They rushed her to hospital and that’s when she found out that she was indeed really hurt and her lung collapsed because of it,” Bernard-Nau said.

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Witnesses said Washington was walking up the stairs after getting off the Q train when the suspect came up from behind and started to attack.

“She’s just scared and she wants this guy caught because he can go out and do something worse to someone else,” Bernard-Nau said.

Community activists said they are hoping for a speedy arrest.

Washington had to go into surgery for her lung. She is still recovering at the hospital as her attacker remains on the streets.