London
– Former UN diplomat told how he was
attacked by a man who had shouted antisemitic abuse at him as he walked his
dogs along leafy Lancaster Grove.
Mr Zakariah Fellah, 49, was visiting Belsize
Park to stay with a friend who is a diplomat at the Polish embassy in London.
After
coming round, and bleeding profusely from his smashed nose, he stumbled back to
his friend’s home further down Lancaster Grove and called police – who took 45
minutes to arrive.
They
took him to the Royal Free Hospital where he spent five hours and was given
eight stitches to his nose. He is now waiting for the results of an X-ray to
see the full extent of damage to his face.
Mr
Fellah told how he had gone out for an evening stroll before bed at around
10:30pm last Wednesday when he was attacked.
He
said: “I had taken the dogs out and was walking along when this guy started
shouting at me. I had seen him on a previous occasion and he seemed to have a
problem with the dogs. He shouted at me ‘you are rich and Jewish and you
shouldn’t let your dogs Poo on the street.’ He then came over and grabbed my
hat..”
“Then on this occasion from nowhere he
suddenly ran towards me and headbutted me on my nose. I was stunned and fell
backwards. I was not expecting it at all. The next thing I knew, when I came
round after ten or 15 seconds, I am lying on the floor and he is standing over
me. My nose is destroyed.”
His
attacker then fled.
Mr
Fellah, who is Canadian but has lived in New York for the last 26 years, said:
“I am just shocked, so shocked. It seems that London has become more dangerous
than New York. This seems like such a peaceful, friendly neighbourhood, yet I
feel safer on the streets of Manhattan without any doubt, where nothing like this
has ever happened to me.”
He
is surprised that the police took so long to arrive. “In New York the police
would have arrived in five minutes.
“But they did explain that they didn’t
realise that I had been badly hurt. They were then very courteous and called an
ambulance. But it didn’t turn up so the police took me to the hospital in a
patrol car,” he said.
Mr
Fellah, who was born Muslim and now lectures around the world on Islamic
extremism, had brought his cocker Spaniels over from the US to stay with his
friend for several months.
He
said: “I am now carrying on doing the things I love in London. But I do not
feel comfortable walking down the street. It is just crazy. I never thought
anything like this would happen in an area like this which is full of families,
young children.”
A
police spokesman confimed that officers were called to Lancaster Grove at
10:53pm last Wednesday. to reports that a man in his 40s had been headbutted.
The
spokesman said: “A suspect was later arrested and questioned at a north London
police station on suspicion of assault causing greivous bodily harm.”
The
suspect has been released pending further inquiries.
