Egyptian teenager dies after attack by gang of women in Nottingham

18-year-old Mariam Moustafa was a student and had a place to study at university in London

An Egyptian-Italian engineering student has died three weeks after she was beaten by a gang of six women and girls in Nottingham city centre.

The death of Mariam Moustafa has provoked outrage in her home country. One of Mariam’s relatives told JOE that the family were “distraught” with the lack of attention the case has attracted and perceived “negligence” exhibited by the authorities.

“Imagine the outrage if a British girl was attacked by six Muslim, Arab immigrants,” she said.

Mariam was punched several times in Parliament Street before she tried to escape by boarding the No 27 bus outside the Intu Victoria shopping centre. The gang of women, who were threatening and abusive towards her, followed her onto the bus.

The victim’s family say a man called Pablo came to her aid.

In a statement, bus company Nottingham City Transport (NCT) said one of its drivers helped Miss Moustafa.

“We would also like to publicly recognise our driver, who went upstairs to intervene and acted as a barrier between the attackers and the young lady, after he asked them to leave the bus,” NCT said.

“CCTV from the bus has been provided to Nottinghamshire Police as part of their investigation into this appalling attack and we continue to support their efforts to identify the culprits.”

Her mother said that she was previously abused in the street by the same gang but that the police failed to act.

Nottinghamshire Police said there was no information “to suggest that the assault was motivated by hate but we continue to keep an open mind”.

Before Miss Moustafa’s death, police arrested a 17-year-old girl on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. She was released on conditional bail.

Ms Moustafa’s sister, Mallak, 15, speaking on behalf of the family last month, described her as a “kind, ambitious person” who was living “her dreams of being an engineer”.

She said: “We don’t understand who would do this to her. She is very quiet and never gets involved in any problems. We never got to find out what happened from her because she didn’t get a chance to tell us before she fell unwell.

“We are hoping that her brain is recovering while she is in a coma and until that happens we will continue to be by her side every day at the hospital. We are all very shocked and upset and don’t know what to do. We just want those who did this to Mariam to be found as what has happened is wrong.”

Detective Chief Inspector Mat Healey, of Nottinghamshire police, said: “Our thoughts are with the woman’s family, who we are giving support to at this difficult time. Our investigation is ongoing and extensive inquiries have already been completed but we’re urging anyone with any information to get in touch with us.

“We know there were a lot of people standing at the bus stop when the assault happened and we’re urging them to please come forward with any information which could help us.”