Croydon’s tight-knit Kurdish community has spoken of its fear that the brutal gang attack on a Iranian-Kurdish teenager may not be the last.

The emotive reaction follows the attack on Reker Ahmed, a 17-year-old, who sustained serious injuries including a fractured skull and cracked eye socket after being beaten in an ‘unprovoked assault’.

Members of the busy London Road community have said they feel helpless about the attack which they feel will only happen again but pledged to stand up to the menace.

A local meat-seller said: “Everyday people fight here, I am upset that it happened. I am more upset that there is nothing I can do about it.”

Asylum seeker, Reker Ahmed was chased by 30 people on Shrublands Avenue, Shirley, as he waited with two friends at the bus-stop, on Friday (April 31).

Shop-keepers in the multi-ethnic West Croydon area, said that it reminded them of a previous attack that happened in 2014.

A person who wished to remain anonymous said: “When I heard the news I was so sad. Because we cannot do anything about the area.

“The area is rough and New Addington and Shirley are particularly racist.

“The only way that this will change, is if the police get involved, but it’s like they refuse to do anything. 

“The law needs to change.

“When you think that people come here for democracy and human rights, and then you find out that there aren’t it’s a big shock”

A friend of the Reker’s said he remembers him and added: “I use to chill with him, we all chill here. I saw him a few times. But he is not from here in this part of Croydon.

“It is so upsetting that this happened to my people. “