﻿A former Young New Zealander of the Year and her Kiwi friend were threatened with a knife and racially abused in California this week, amid a wave of ﻿hate-crimes that have broken out since the US election result.

Divya Dhar, 30, who started her career as a junior doctor at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, was waiting with fellow Kiwi friend, Vinny Lohan, 27, just inside the entrance at Millbrae train station in San Francisco when Dhar was forcefully shoved from behind.

"It was a sharp shove," she said.

STEVE DIPAOLA / REUTERS Damaged cars sit on a lot after a riot swept through the area in protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President.

When she turned around the man, pulled out a six inch kitchen knife. "I just kept quiet and the guy walked forward and started yelling f..... n...., f.., you n....."

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The pair were able to escape unharmed, but were left shaken and in disbelief the day after Donald Trump was elected US president.

Supplied Diyva Dhar was the victim of an abusive attack in San Francisco, following the US election.

Lohan, also from Auckland, runs a music startup out of Mumbai and New Zealand. He believed he and Dhar had been targeted by a hate crime, he said, classified as being motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudices.

"It felt like he was fully conscious of what he was doing.

"The man was not happy to see us, it wasn't discontentment, it was anger."

NOAH BERGER An AT&T truck burns as protests riot in Oakland, California, U.S. following the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Noah Berger

Dhar, who has lived in the US for five years,​ said there had been a recent rise in this type of violence, particularly after the election.

"There's a lot of racial tension in America right now.

"I am pretty sad about what's going on and it seems like it's happening in a lot of places. I keep seeing my friends post from around the country, so obviously what happened to me is not isolated – which is even scarier actually."

SUPPLIED Diyva Dhar was the victim of an abusive attack in San Francisco, following the US election.

She couldn't believe the man, whom she described as a "white American man in his mid thirties, six feet tall and reasonably well-dressed", had aimed his vitriol at her.

"There was a sense of disbelief, I was thinking what the hell is going on, I didn't do anything, I am just standing quietly minding my own business, why is he so angry?"

"He wasn't holding the knife in a stabbing position, but kept waving the knife around by his navel," she recalled. "I was scared, but I knew I had to stay calm and not provoke him and I kept thinking if this had anything to do with the election."

Service with a smile: Divya Dhar used her prize money from winning Young New Zealander of the Year to set up a fund to combat poverty.

She called the police once the man had moved out of her sight.

A group of people nearby rallied around Dhar and Lohan to support them at the scene and later online with a Facebook post by Dhar attracting nearly 300 comments of support and 800 likes, many from New Zealanders.

"Kia kaha Divya. Thinking of you and others," posted Vivian Fu.

Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy called the abuse "a real wake up call for us to never go remotely down any path that gives people some kind of validation to behave like that".

"We have seen Brexit, and now America: Kiwis must not be so naive to think it could never happen here. The only thing ensuring it could never happen here are everyday New Zealanders."

"We must stand up for each other. If you see someone being abused or attacked, do something – like the man at Countdown Mt Roskill who ignored the man who told him to run over a Muslim woman shopper and instead got out of his car to help her."

"We're heading to an election ourselves next year and I call on every politician to reject racist dog-whistle politics and to act with mana and respect people no matter what their ethnicity happens to be."

Dhar went to two events on the night of the election, including the election party at Wellesley College, Hillary Clinton's alma mater where students from as far back at the 1940s joined existing students and staff for what was expected to be a celebration of the victory of their most famous alumni.

Up to 3,000, mainly women, packed out the premise snacking on party food while snapping selfies with cardboard cutouts of Clinton.

"When we left at the half way point we could already tell things were going really wrong.

"I'm not necessarily a Democrat supporter, I'm just not a racist and a sexist. I have nothing against the Republican party, in fact there are many principles of the Republicans that I like and uphold.

"What I don't like is when there is racist and misogynistic behaviour involved – that's not even policy anymore, that's basic human rights going down the drain.

"I think it's only going to get worse, before it gets better."

The tirade directed at Dhar and Lohan isn't isolated: police in the US are investigating the wave of alleged hate crimes against minority groups – Muslims, Hispanic Americans, black people, ethnic minorities and the LGBT community in three days since the US election.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's travel advisory for Kiwis travelling to the United States says there is "some risk" from crime, terrorism and civil unrest. The advisory has remained unchanged since September.

MFAT said they had not received any specific requests from assistance as a direct result of the US election.

APX Travel Management chief executive Andrew Dale said corporate customers were beginning to have a discussion among themselves, but no formal risk alert had been issued.