‘Four kids screamed p*** at me on a busy train – no-one came to help’

A mum who was called a ‘p***’ on the Elizabeth Line by four schoolkids says other passengers turned on her for trying to report them.

Mum-of-two Sophia was on the way home from an event when she heard the young children shouting racist abuse at her.

She told Metro that when she tried to stop the train and told other passengers, they merely shrugged ‘so what?’ and ‘they’re just kids’.

Sophia, whose parents came to the UK from Pakistan decades ago, said the confrontation left her paranoid and afraid to use the train.

Sophia was left paranoid for a week after the racist abuse (Picture: supplied)

She told Metro: ‘I have not heard that word in 25 years. I could not believe it. I was shocked, devastated and heartbroken. How has this happened in London – the city of diversity?’

‘It feels like people have got a license to be racist without consequences.’

A video recorded by the businesswoman has gone viral on TikTok, with over two million views and 100,000 likes.

Sophia was on the Elizabeth line from Paddington to Maidenhead on Sunday September 7 when she heard shouting over the music on her headphones.

She then took out her earplugs and heard four kids, who she estimated were 13 years old, opposite her loudly shouting out the word ‘p***’ at her.

Sophia said: ‘I thought I heard that word and I thought that can’t be right. But they were – they were shouting that word.

The children were loudly shouting out the word ‘p***’ on the train

‘Nobody batted an eyelid. This was going on for a while.

‘The kids were laughing at me. They did not care.’

The mum eventually got her phone out to film the four youths, telling them she’d report the abuse to the police.

They tried to run off the train but the doors closed before they could get off at Southall.

Sophia, who runs a roti-making business, pressed the emergency stop button to halt the service before the children could make a getaway at the next station, Hayes & Harlington.

She was then horrified when other white passengers tried to defend the children.

The mum added: ‘They were groaning because I pressed the button. I said “I’m sorry guys but I can’t let them get away with this.”

‘One man said, “What did they do?” And I said, “Oh, they were being racist.” And then he said, “Well, so what?”

‘Another man then said to me, “They’re just kids, why are you doing this?”

‘I just could not believe what was going on. I remember thinking, “Is anybody gonna back me up? Is anybody gonna say anything?”‘

Sophia decided to ignore the other passengers and phoned the police about the racist abuse.

The racist remarks took Sophia back to racist bullying she faced as a school child (Picture: supplied)

The children then escaped at Hayes & Harlington station, where Sophia was also told to get off.

She then got back on the Elizabeth line to Slough, before her husband picked her up to take her home.

By then, the hurt and pain of the racist abuse had begun to sink in.

‘I felt very triggered. At school I was the only brown girl and as a child I really suffered from racism,’ Sophia, who grew up in Sunderland, explained.

‘It was that little girl in me who had that little bit of strength, which she didn’t have previously, to get up and do something.

‘I understand if people don’t want to get involved, I understand. But what brought me to tears is when they turned on me.’

Sophia then shared the standoff on a now viral TikTok, with many people getting in touch to try and help her track down the kids.

Others reached out to her to thank her for sharing her story.

The parent, who has a 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son, said the racist abuse left her afraid to use the train.

She said: ‘This really threw me. I was very paranoid for the whole week after, I did not want to walk past groups of schoolchildren.

‘Tuesday was the first time I went on the London Underground since the incident and I timed it so it was outside of school hours.’

Sophia fears the racist abuse is one part of a rising racist attitude among some British people

Sophia says the other passenger’s reaction is a sign of the rising tide of racism in parts of the UK.

‘Those passengers heard what happened and they instantly thought I was the villain, they blamed me,’ she explained.

‘Racism is rife at the moment. Those men just didn’t care. They just instantly knew that they didn’t want to help or support me.

‘Race crimes are so high at the moment. I am terrified for my children.’

The British Transport Police said enquiries are ongoing into what happened.

They told Metro: ‘Officers received a report around 8pm on Sunday 7 September that a woman had been racially abused by a group of children on an Elizabeth Line train.

‘They were reported to have left the train at Hayes and Harlington station and officers have launched a full investigation with enquiries continuing.

‘We take a zero tolerance approach to hate crime and anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to text BTP on 61016, or call 0800 40 50 40, using the reference 567 of 7 September.’

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