Police say a woman has been arrested and is being held in custody after a racist tirade was caught on video outside Toronto City Hall on Monday.

The video, posted to Reddit on Monday, depicts a woman going on a racist rant while holding a “Vote Andrew Scheer” sign at Nathan Phillips Square.

At one point, she can be seen spitting on the individual recording the video, yelling “this is a beautiful country and you can’t f--- it up, you savages,” and “you don’t belong here.”

Police said they received calls from passersby around noon on Monday and arrested the woman shortly after.

Farhan Rana, who filmed the video, said he was on his lunch break when he encountered the woman.

“I was just going for a walk when suddenly she came out of nowhere and started yelling at me,” Rana said. “She started calling me names and telling me to go back to my country.”

Farhan said he was “amused, at first,” and chose to ignore her. But the woman kept following him, he said, and after she called him a racial slur he decided to start filming her.

“That’s when I felt targeted, like I should take it seriously,” he said.

Rana, who grew up in Toronto, said he’s “never experienced anything like this before here.”

In a statement on Twitter, Scheer, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, condemned the woman’s behaviour.

“I don’t know who this woman is, but there is no place in our party or our country for her hateful language,” he wrote.

Talya Davidson, 28, was charged with one count of assault and three counts of assaulting police officers, police say.

She is expected to appear in court at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Jacob Lorinc is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @jacoblorinc

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