Police were today hunting two women accused of punching and kicking a Muslim woman wearing a hijab during a violent Islamophobic attack on board a London bus.

Fellow bus passengers said the woman, in her 40s, was subjected to a torrent of racist and Islamophobic abuse, before she was punched in the head and kicked off the bus as it travelled through Southwark in south London.

They then continued to hurl abuse at her as she lay on the pavement, close to Elephant and Castle tube station.

Police were today hunting these two women, who are accused of punching and kicking a Muslim woman wearing a hijab during a violent Islamophobic attack on board a London bus

Police were called to the scene, and the woman, who was badly shaken by the attack, was then taken to hospital for treatment.

Officers have today released CCTV photographs of two female suspects, who were believed to be in their twenties, following the attack on October 28.

'Officers were called at approximately 20.10 on 28 October to reports of a woman being subject to racial and Islamophobic abuse on a route 63 bus on London Road, Southwark,' said a spokesman from the Metropolitan Police. 'The bus was travelling from Kings Cross to Peckham.

'Officers attended and spoke to a woman in her forties who was injured as a result of being punched in the head and kicked off the bus by two female suspects.

'The suspects were heard by the victim and witnesses shouting racist and Islamophobic abuse at the victim before and after the attack.'

Fellow bus passengers said the woman, in her 40s, was subjected to a torrent of racist and Islamophobic abuse, before she was punched in the head and kicked off the bus as it travelled through Southwark in south London, close to Elephant and Castle tube station

At the time of the attack, eye-witnesses had spoken of the incident on social media, including Antonia Bance, head of campaigns at the Trades Union Congress

No arrests have been made.

Police are also keen to trace other passengers on board the bus, as it is believed they may have filmed the incident, or taken photographs on their mobile phones.

At the time of the attack, eye-witnesses had spoken of the incident on social media.

Antonia Bance, head of campaigns at the Trades Union Congress, wrote on Twitter: 'Just witnessed a hate crime at the Elephant [and Castle].

'Muslim woman in hijab kicked backwards off a bus to the floor. "This isn’t b***** Africa," they said.

'Others heard anti-Muslim abuse. Some tried to hold them but they ran.'

Another witness wrote on Facebook: 'This girl viciously attacked a Muslim, hijabi woman in her 40s on a 63 bus outside London South Bank University in Elephant and Castle.

'The girl and her friend recorded video of themselves shouting Islamophobic hate speech at the woman and physically intimidating her.

'After bringing the lady to tears, I heard them screaming at her to 'stop crying and shut the f*** up'.

'As she tried to get off the bus they followed her to the doors where the girl pictured violently kicked the woman onto the curb.'

Earlier this month, police revealed that the number of hate crimes against Muslims in London had tripled in the weeks since the Paris terror attacks, according to figures from Scotland Yard.

In the week to Tuesday November 10 - three days before the massacre in the French capital which killed 130 people - police in London received 24 reports of Islamophobic incidents.

The number had almost doubled to 46 in the following seven days, before soaring to 76 - more than 10 a day - in the week ending November 24.

That same week it was reported that a pregnant Turkish woman was branded a 'terrorist' in a 15-minute rant as she travelled on a bus through Finsbury Park in north London.

And in October mother-of-three Simone Joseph, 36, admitted racially or religiously aggravated harassment after she called Hanane Yakoubi an ‘Isis b******’ and told her to ‘go back to your f****** country’ while travelling with her two-year-old child on a London bus.