A High Wycombe police chief wants to stamp out all hate attacks across the district after a teenager was hurt during a shocking racially-aggravated assault in a supermarket car park.

In 2014 and 2015 there were 43 incidents of racially-aggravated criminal acts in the Local Policing Area, but Chief Inspector Rebecca Mears says through work with the community they hope to stop it completely.

This comes after a 19-year-old woman was put in a headlock, spat at and told to leave the country on Wednesday last week in Asda car park, in Cressex.

The victim was sitting in the passenger seat of a car outside the main entrance to the store when she was abused by two men and a woman who were parked in a car next to her.

The woman, who was standing next to the vehicle smoking, hit the side of the victim’s vehicle.

When the victim got out of the car the woman racially abused her, told her to leave the country and pushed her.

One of the men, now out of the vehicle, grabbed the victim in a headlock and twisted her arm, leaving the victim struggling to breathe.

The man then threatened the victim and spat in her face.

The victim fled the scene. She was left with a sore wind pipe and was treated at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for cuts and bruises.

Chief Inspector Mears said: “The focus for the Force is to encourage hate crime to be reported and it’s not just crimes, we want all hate incidents to be reported.

“It’s very important to us and even more important here because we have such a diverse community that we work and live in.”

She added that the police are encouraging reporting and speaking with community groups to ensure harmony remains intact.

They also have help from a third party organisation, called Stop Hate UK, that can take anonymous information from members of the public in a bid to report more incidents of hate crime.

Chief Inspector Mears said: “This sort of incident is unacceptable and it is really important people talk to us and report this sort of thing when it happens.”

Speaking about the latest incident, investigating officer PC Hannah Davison added: “We take offences of this nature extremely seriously and we are determined to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

For more information about last week’s incident, click here.

Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org For more information about Stop Hate UK, visit www.stophateuk.org