Viral: The image of a man accused of attempting to rip off a young woman's hijab has been shared thousands of times online

An architect has denied trying to pull a Muslim teenager's hijab off, saying he was defending his black girlfriend.

His comments come after 18-year-old Aniso Abulkadir from Harrow, London, claimed she and her friends were racially assaulted at Baker Street Tube station yesterday morning.

The teenager shared a photo of the alleged attacker online and described how he attempted to remove her headscarf before hitting her.

Now the man in the image has identified himself on Twitter and is hitting back at the allegations after the picture went viral.

Pawel Uczciwek, 28, from London, claims he was sticking up for his girlfriend and attempting to defuse what he called a 'racist attack from three random females'.

Mr Uczciwek wrote: 'I would like to confirm I never hit or attacked anyone I simply defused the situation by separating them.

'The police is fully cooperating with me and will be able to obtain CCTV footage showing the three women attempting to attack my partner because we are in an interracial relationship.'

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said they were investigating the incident and had been sent the statement from Mr Uczciwek.

Police said the first call they received was in the early hours of Saturday morning after the episode from the victim.

It wasn't me: Architect Pawel Uczciwek, 28, from London, claims he was sticking up for his girlfriend and attempting to defuse what he called a 'racist attack'

Earlier today Luxi Rajeswaran, who was with her friend Miss Abulkadir, at the time of the alleged incident said an argument broke out after another friend was body-shamed by the woman in the photograph.

Speaking to MailOnline, Miss Rajeswaran claimed her friend was set upon by a man who attempted to pull off her headscarf shouting: 'Show me your hair!'

'The man said, “Show me your hair!” and tried to pull it off. Ania has never had a racial encounter like this before and has been left so upset by it,' the 18-year-old said.

‘It’s the worst thing that could happen to have it removed, she chooses to wear it and it’s for her own reasons. It’s stripping her of her dignity to do that,’ she added.

Miss Rajeswaran then described how the thug turned on her after she called him racist for his behaviour.

Shocking: Miss Abdulkadir, pictured above, claimed the man forcefully attempted to pull off her hijab and hit her as she instinctively tried to protect herself

She claimed: ‘He almost pinned me up against the wall so I couldn’t move then spat in my face. I tried to get help but the cleaner nearby ignored me. Everyone else on the platform ignored us and didn’t try to help.

‘I was trembling but I managed to take a picture, we didn’t want to show them our fear but obviously afterwards we were shaking. It’s quite a lot for an 18-year-old to go through something like this, we were just trying to get home. All our families were worried about us as we missed the last train back because of it.’

After reporting the incident to the police, Miss Abulkadir posted about the ordeal on Twitter, alongside a picture of the suspects.

In the post, Aniso Abdulkadir wrote: 'This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed a hold of my scarf he hit me.'

She posted: 'He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face.

'The woman was throwing out threats and was also verbally abusive.'

'Completely false': Pawel Uczciwek, who has identified himself as the man in the tweet which went viral, has strongly denied claims he attacked the Muslim teenager

Miss Abdulkadir's tweet alleging she was targeted has been met with a huge response online with thousands offering support

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said earlier today: 'Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This incident has been reported to is and we're investigating.'

Miss Rajewaran, who has just completed sixth form and is planning on attending university in the Autumn, also recounted the incident on Twitter.

She wrote: 'These two at Baker Street station were racially abusive, the man tried to pull my friends headscarf off and pushed me against a wall, find them.'

Writing on the social media platform, she described how there were up to 30 people on the platform who looked on but did nothing.

She said: 'Racism is a real thing people choose to ignore, we really do live in a pathetic society where people are all talk and completely useless

'I'd just like to take a moment to emphasise on my disgust on the people who witnessed a grown man pull an 18 year olds hijab and remain silent.

'Believe me, there were more than 20 to 30 people and not a single person helped. People just watched and filmed, ****** pathetic.'