(CNN) Teen girls were charged with hate crimes after police said they attacked a woman on a New York bus, made "anti-Asian statements" toward her and told her she caused coronavirus.

Police said the four suspects attacked the 51-year-old victim on an MTA bus in the Bronx. They called her a expletive, said she caused coronavirus and asked her why she wasn't wearing a mask , NYPD Lt. Thomas Antonetti told CNN.

One of the suspects struck the woman's head with an umbrella before all four of them fled the bus, police said.

The woman received stitches for a cut on her head at a local hospital, the NYPD said in a statement.

Shortly after the incident, officers arrested three15-year-old girls near the scene. The teens were charged with hate crime assaults, menacing and harassment for the attack, the NYPD said.