The Canadian police are investigating an incident in which a 17-year-old Sikh student was “kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed” after an “altercation” on a public transit bus in British Columbia province.

Ottawa: A 17-year-old Sikh high school student was assaulted at a bus stop in Canada’s British Columbia province on Monday in what appeared to be a case of hate crime. As per a report by CTV News, the incident occurred in Kelowna at the intersection of Rutland Road South and Robson Road East where the victim was allegedly “kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed”. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police official, while talking about the matter, informed that before the assault there was “an altercation” aboard a bus, which resulted in those involved being kicked off from the vehicle.

“Officers determined a 17-year-old Sikh student was either beer or pepper sprayed by another teenage male after exiting a public transit bus on his way home.” While police have not released more details, the World Sikh Organisation of Canada has alleged that the student was also assaulted while aboard the vehicle.

“Two individuals approached the student and first barred his entry onto the bus and then, once allowing him to board, began to threaten him with a lighter and photograph and record him from a close distance with their phones,” the CTV news report quoted the organisation’s statement.

“When the Sikh student turned away, the attackers’ phone fell from their hands and they began to kick and punch the Sikh student in front of the bus driver,” the WSOC statement read.

It further said that the bus driver did not intervene, and, in fact, ordered the Sikh student and his attackers off the bus at the Rutland and Robson stop. After getting kicked off the bus, the two continued to attack the student, including pepper spraying him, until intervention by the passers-by.

“Monday’s attack on a Sikh high school student in Kelowna is shocking and unacceptable,” Guntaas Kaur, WSO vice president for British Columbia was quoted as saying.

This is the second such instance of violence against a Sikh youth riding public transit in the city this year. Earlier in March, a 21-year-old Sikh student from India, Gagandeep Singh, was attacked in British Columbia province by a group of unknown men who ripped off his turban and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair.