A TEENAGE boy who knocked a senior citizen unconscious in a quiet carriage-related dispute outside Wollongong train station has been outed to police.
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Multiple people recognised the teen after viewing video footage of the attack on the Mercury’s website.
The clip shows the teen slamming the 61-year-old man into ground outside the station’s western entrance about 8.35am Monday.
The man’s head connects with a metal Opal card reader as he hits the ground.
According to a witness who filmed the encounter, the man briefly lost consciousness and woke with bleeding to his ear and head.
The witness said he and other onlookers were too shocked to intervene.
“I didn’t think [an attack] would happen; I just thought they would have an argument and sort it out,” said the witness, who did not want to be named.
“Suddenly the boy just - really fast - punched at him. It happened way too fast.
“A number of people just stood there and didn’t know how to react.”
The man initially declined medical treatment but later attended Wollongong Hospital. He has since been discharged.
Wollongong Detective Inspector Ben Hopper said police inquiries were ongoing.
“We’ve been assisted by various members of the public, which is very pleasing,” he said, Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re certainly very interested in speaking to anybody who can identify who these people are.
“It’s very disturbing footage. I look forward to our police knocking on these peoples’ doors and putting them before the courts.”
Readers took to social media to condemn the “disgusting” attack and the “gutless scumbag” who dealt it.
“What an utter chicken-livered coward,” said one.
The witness claims the attack occurred after the teen and his friends stood in the northbound train’s quiet carriage and loudly flouted requests from senior travelers for silence.
The man was reportedly among the objectors. He became engaged a in “push and pull” scuffle on the train and was trying to stop one of the boys at the station shortly before he was attacked.