LONDON: An Indian woman has recounted a terrifying experience in which she claims a Bangladeshi Uber driver in London lashed out at her over the Delhi riots whilst she was a passenger in his car.

Uber has confirmed it is investigating the incident after Indian national Kamini, 41, lodged a complaint about the “abuse” she received on Tuesday morning which left her traumatised.

Kamini, originally from Mumbai but in the UK for 10 years, called the Uber in London at 8am to travel with her cousin’s to an embassy appointment.

“He arrived late, then drove off and asked casually where I’m from and I said ‘I am from India’… Then I asked him, ‘Where you from?’ and he said: ‘Bangladesh…’ He then went on a rant, got angry with me, abused me,” Kamini alleged.

“He kept getting angrier and despite me requesting him to stop all conversation with me, he kept accusing, shouting and yelling. Then at one point he got so angry he parked his car in the road and asked me and my cousin to get out and travel by train,” she claimed.

“I refused to get out. I told him ‘You have to take us to the destination, otherwise I will call the police. I said, ‘You are being racist and harassing us’. After five minutes he calmed down and carried on. I reported it to Uber afterwards. They responded in the evening and asked me for more details. When he was non-stop yelling at us, I was so scared. I said please don’t talk about religion like this,” she claimed.

An Uber spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the report and we are currently investigating this incident.”

It is against Uber’s community guidelines to discriminate against anyone based on their race, ethnicity or national origin. “Our community guidelines outline the behaviour expected from driver, couriers and passengers who use the Uber app. Any violation of any of these guidelines can result in permanently losing access to the app,” she added.

Indian diaspora group British Indians Voice tweeted her Facebook post about the incident. The official Uber UK Twitter account responded: “That's not OK. Could you please ask the account holder to DM us the email and mobile linked to their account? We’ll be able to look into this then.”

