A group of four Asian women were looking for a lost item in Manhattan when they were suddenly attacked with pepper spray after the attacker allegedly screamed, “Go back where you came from! Go back to your country!” The incident happened last Saturday near New York City’s Meatpacking District and Chelsea (14th Street and 9th Avenue) around 6p.

“I thought I would be safe in the middle of Chelsea, in the middle of the day, with so many people around,” victim Nicole Chung, 24, told the New York Post. But “it is not safe going out in the city as an Asian person. It’s scary in New York.”

“She hit me in the eyes with the pepper spray, which started burning immediately. It felt like someone was pouring bleach in my eyes,” Chung continued.

"It was so painful. I couldn't open my eyes for about 30 minutes," another victim said.

During the attack, the attacker allegedly turned to another Asian bystander and shouted, “Take your bitches back to where you all came from!”

According to ABC7, it is believed that these four Asian women were not the only people attacked that day. One of the victims received a message from someone who said this same woman verbally assaulted and pepper-sprayed a group of three of them in the same location an hour earlier. One of the victims in their group included a 13-year-old girl.

NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating this attack as a hate crime. Anyone with information related to Saturday’s incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).