Indian-origin man brutally attacked with machete in Australia

A 33-year-old Indian-origin man was brutally attacked with a machete by a group of teenagers in Australia, leaving him with multiple injuries, including a nearly severed hand.

Saurabh Anand was approached by the teenage boys from behind when he was walking home on July 19 after picking up medicines at a pharmacy at Central Square Shopping Centre in Altona Meadows, Melbourne, according to media reports and police.

They shoved him to the ground before viciously attacking him, The Age newspaper reported.

One of the teenagers had his hands in Mr. Anand’s pockets, rummaging for valuables.

He said another boy punched him in the head repeatedly until he fell to the ground. A third teen pulled out a machete and held it to his throat,

“They didn’t stop there,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Anand as saying from his hospital bed, days after enduring several surgeries to reattach his severed left hand.

“My instinctive reaction was to bring my arm up to protect my face and wrist. While I was trying to protect myself, the machete just went through my wrist. The second attack, the machete went through my hand … the third went through my bone.” Anand alleged he was then slashed and stabbed with the machete on his shoulder and back.

“I was just trying to survive,” he said. “All I remember is the pain, and my hand was … hanging by a thread. There were bone ruptures on my arm as well.”

“I was just tumbling around, half-concussed, half-conscious.” Mr. Anand was rushed to the hospital after he cried out for help to strangers passing by. They found him bloodied outside the shopping centre and called triple zero, the paper reported.

The teenagers fled with his phone.

Mr. Anand said doctors initially thought they would have to amputate his left hand. But surgeons were able to reattach it following hours of gruelling emergency surgery, which included inserting screws into his wrist and hand.

He also suffered head injuries, broken bones in his left arm and a fracture in his spine.

The attack occurred on the same day an Indian student sustained injuries in an alleged racist attack in Australia’s Adelaide.

Several teenagers have been arrested over Anand’s attack.

A 14-year-old appeared at a Children’s Court this week, charged with a spate of offences including intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing injury, robbery and unlawful assault.

He was remanded in custody until August 15.

Two 15-year-olds were also charged with intentionally causing serious injury, robbery and unlawful assault. Police said the two were bailed and will face the Children’s Court on August 11.

A 14-year-old boy from the Hobsons Bay area was also arrested and is expected to be charged on summons.

Mr. Anand says he was distressed after learning the two 15-year-olds were still out in the community after the attack. “I’m seeking justice,” Anand said. “I don’t want anyone else in the community to be going through the same trauma I have.

Mr. Anand is one of the latest victims of a surge in knife violence across Melbourne.

A 17-year-old boy was stabbed about 30 kilometres away at Broadmeadows Central Shopping Centre in the city’s north about 6.30 pm the following evening.

Victoria is grappling with its highest youth crime rate since electronic records began, prompting the state government to pass new laws in March, toughening bail laws.

Premier Jacinta Allan vowed the reforms would create the “toughest bail test in the country” for repeat offenders.