A global poll by Ipsos Mori last week found that 14 per cent of respondents said they would avoid contact with people of Chinese origin or appearance

A City consultant was violently assaulted and robbed by two teenagers shouting “coronavirus” at him, in the first hate crime linked to the virus to be reported to the police in Britain.

Pawat Silawattakun, 24, was travelling home to Fulham in west London on Saturday when he was attacked.

The Thai tax consultant was left bleeding and with a broken nose after one teenager stole his headphones and the other filmed the attack on his phone. Instead of running away, his assailants stayed and laughed at him, and none of the passers-by came to help. Mr Silawattakun said: “I had these noise-cancelling headphones on and took them off as these guys just shouted ‘Coronavirus! Coronavirus! Ha, ha!’ in my face while filming me.

“I didn’t