A St Louis woman was dragged out of her car, attacked and threatened with murder because she is Bosnian, police claim.

Officers called in the FBI to investigate the case as a hate crime five days after a Bosnian man was hammered to death nearby.

Police said the victim, 26, was driving around a gang of black teenagers at 5.25 on Friday morning when one pulled a gun and ordered her to stop.

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Emotional: The 26-year-old victims parents said they fled the Bosnian war now fear targeted attacks in the city

One struck the windshield with a crowbar and another pulled her out the car.

The gang, believed to be all-male, then went through her empty purse and threw her cell phone on the ground, St Louis Post Dispatch reported.

They asked where she was from and she said she was European, she claims.

'You're a [expletive] liar,' one man allegedly shouted at the woman.

'You're Bosnian. I should just kill you now'.

They then pushed her back to the ground and kicked her. She was found unconscious by passers-by but opted not to go to hospital.

Killing: Police said that Zemir Begic was driving in Bevo Mill early Sunday morning when a group of juveniles surrounded his car and began banging on it, beating him when he stepped out of the vehicle

Scene of crime: Flowers at an impromptu memorial to Zemir Begic in South St Louis on Sunday

The reported encounter prompted St Louis police to call the FBI to investigate the case as a hate crime.

It comes five days after Zemir Begic, 32, a South City resident of Bosnian descent, was driving home with his newlywed wife at around 1.15am when police say a group of teenagers approached his car and began vandalizing it.

Begic emerged from his vehicle to try and stop them, at which point the teenagers allegedly attacked him with hammers, striking him in the head, face and abdomen.

The motorist was taken to an area hospital, where he died from his injuries a short time later. His wife escaped unharmed after her husband reportedly shielded her from the attackers with his body.

Suspect Robert Mitchell, 17, turned himself in Sunday night after two of his alleged accomplices, ages 15 and 16, were arrested by police, reported St Louis Post-Dispatch.