XT outage stalls help for attacked student

Last updated 08:31 23/02/2010

Daniel Tobin

Ron Ching tells what happened when he witnessed an Asian student being attacked outside the Palms shopping mall.

Daniel Tobin

Ron Ching witnessed the attack.

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Calls to emergency services to help a student who was attacked at The Palms Mall yesterday failed due to an outage of Telecom's XT network.

Witness Ron Ching said the Asian student was left beaten and bloodied after the assault by four skinheads at a bus stop outside the Shirley shopping centre at around 6.30pm.

Did you witness the attack? Email reporters@press.co.nz.

The attack coincided with an outage of Telecom's XT network, which held up attempts to call emergency services to help the student.

The network has been plagued with problems since being introduced late last year, and an outage yesterday affecting customers south of Taupo was the fourth time since Christmas that customers around the country had been unable to effectively use their phones.

Witnesses believe the attack was racially motivated.

The student was taken to hospital with moderate injuries.

No other information was available.

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