A woman was punched in the face in a suspected racist attack on a packed train.

She was left bleeding from above the eye following the alleged assault after her assailant heard her speaking Spanish during a phone call on the Overground.

Witnesses said he shouted abuse at the woman between Dalston Kingsland and Canonbury during the rush hour on Tuesday evening.

Engineer Enrik Del Sol, 35, said: “He came up to her quite violently. He was shouting at her: ‘You need to speak in English, you’re in f***ing England. You shouldn’t speak other languages.’ The lady was in so much shock she couldn’t seem to reply to him in English so she was just replying in Spanish. Then he came up and punched her in the face.”

He added: “Someone pressed the emergency stop ... but the attacker just walked off, nobody tried to stop him.”

British Transport Police said a man, 56, was later arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated bodily harm.