A student says police should take hate crime more seriously after she was thrown to the ground and repeatedly punched in what she believes was a racially motivated attack.

Mary Lee, 22, from South Korea, was assaulted after challenging teenagers who threw rubbish at her.

The second-year student at the University of Creative Arts in Canterbury was walking down Oxford Street in London with a friend after attending a church service when she encountered the group, who she described as "mixed white and black teenagers".

She says that when she asked them to stop, they laughed and a girl responded saying "Oh, you speak English?" and carried on, prompting her to throw a coffee cup back in retaliation.

The girl then pushed Mary, also known as Yeon, to the ground and a group of up to 10 people began kicking and punching her as she lay on the floor screaming.

She says she believes the brutal assault lasted about six to seven minutes until two men, who had been standing on the other side of the street, eventually stepped in to intervene.

"I thought they could kill me," she said. "One of the guys who was punching me was around 6ft tall.

"At one point I said 'this is the 21st century, stop being racist,' and they laughed at me."

After the incident, which occurred outside Marks & Spencer at around 5.50pm on Remembrance Sunday while the area was busy with shoppers, Mary called the police but says officers never arrived and that she now feels too scared to go out for fear of being attacked again.

She eventually decided to return home to Canterbury after waiting for more than an hour and reported the incident online.

The ordeal left her with a swollen jaw and painful cuts on her body, and she says she has also suffered several panic attacks in the days since.

"I don't feel safe," she continued.

"I can't really sleep, and I don't really want to go outside. I haven't felt like this before. I used to say to everyone that the UK was my second home town, but this has changed everything.

"[The attackers] didn't even care that it was Oxford Street, and that so many people were in the street. This is not OK and we have to talk about it."

Mary, who has started a petition which has now attracted more than 20,000 signatures, is appealing to anyone who might have witnessed the incident or have video footage to come forward to help police with investigations.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "At approximately 10.53pm on Sunday, November 11, police received an online report of an alleged racially aggravated assault on Oxford Street, W1.

"The incident had happened earlier that day at approximately 5.40pm.

"The female complainant alleges she had rubbish thrown at her by a group of people before being physically assaulted. The complainant received minor injuries.

"Due to comments made during the incident, this is being looked at as a potentially racially aggravated assault.

"There has been no arrest and inquiries continue."