Police hold 36-year-old after video footage of Muslim women being sworn at and threatened with violence goes viral

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A woman has been arrested in connection with the racist abuse of two Muslim women on a London bus, after video footage of the incident went viral on social media.

The 36-year-old woman, who has not been named, was arrested on Friday at her home in Willesden Green, north-west London, on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence on the No 206 bus.

The Metropolitan police said she remained in custody at a north London police station as inquiries continued.

The incident came days after the government ordered police forces to increase data-gathering on Islamophobic attacks.

Video footage taken by a fellow passenger shows a woman, accompanied by a child in a pushchair, shouting abuse at two Muslim women, and continuing after the bus driver comes out of his cab twice to try to defuse the situation.

At one point the woman in the video can be heard swearing and telling the women to “go back to your own country”, and she appears to threaten to kick one of the Muslim women – who is pregnant – in the stomach.

“I will kick you in the stomach. I will pull that down and kick you, so you never have a kid again,” she says. “I will donkey kick you. It will be the first time I’ve ever resorted to violence in public.”

Anyone who has information that may help the investigation, or who was on the bus at the time, has been asked to contact the Met police or Crimestoppers.