Toronto police are investigating what they believe to be a hate crime after a man was viciously assaulted by a group of men in the city’s downtown core early Friday morning.

It happened near King and John streets at around 1:13 a.m.

“(They) just kept on punching me, and punching me, and punching me in the head,” Lowell Hall described of the attack in an interview with CTV Toronto Monday.

Hall said he and a friend were walking in the area when a group of young men came up behind them and started making homophobic slurs.

According to Hall, he was assaulted after taking out his phone to record the event.

“My entire lower (eye)lid was literally hanging by one little thread of skin,” he said of the injuries he suffered to his right eye.

“My tear ducts were ripped,” he added.

No suspect information has yet been released by police.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.