As Britain went into lockdown, fears about health, infection rates and the catastrophic impact on the economy set in.

But something else was taking hold.

We've been speaking to the anti-racism charity, the monitoring group, and they've noticed and a lot... the up of racial violence. We had so many more reports during lockdown. The Metropolitan

Police have confirmed to us that they've also recorded a rise in hate crimes since the pandemic began

and we've heard from people who've suffered incidents of racial abuse.

Even now speaking about it, I'm having shivers. Goose pimples talking about it still, because it's still in my mind I can't forget what happened to me.

Who are the people behind the statistics? You're listening to stories of our

times from the Times and the Sunday Times.

I'm Manveen Rana. Today, the surge in racial hate crimes during lockdown. I went into the shopping center on January to have some photographs in large and I was coming back home when my 19 year old

granddaughter called me from university and she always calls me in a Saturday and we have a grandma, granddaughter chat, you know, about everything,

school and shopping and food and all sorts.

That's Novlet Hoylet, she was born in Jamaica but has lived in the UK for decades.

My name is Novelet Hoylet, a 65 year old lady living in London for the past 50 odd years.

So on that day in January, Novlet got on the 114 bus to head back to her home in Harrow.

She sat down, still chatting to her granddaughter.

This guy came up to me and he told me to get up. I didn't respond to him because I was in conversation as I said before with my

granddaughter and in Sandra he kicked me in the knee and I looked up at him and I looked up at him and I asked him, what do you do that for? So he said to me, I must get him for him to sit down.

So I said to him, I'm one stop away from home, literally one stop from home, and in saying that he

spits in my face. So there was a lady sitting next to me and she jumped up and she says to him,

why do you want this seat? There are two seats behind us. Go and sit there and he said no he wanted me to get up.

The bus nearly got to my stop when I ran the bell and then this guy was ranching and raising and he had a stick in his hand

and he picked up the stick like he was going to clop me in my face with the handle.

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