TOM LEONARD: Why experts fear a vile TikTok challenge is behind young women being targeted in a spate of random sucker punch attacks on New York's streets By Tom Leonard Published: 23:23, 26 May 2024 | Updated: 01:28, 27 May 2024 e-mail 7 shares 51 View comments It was only Gizem Sirmali’s third day in New York City , ‘living the dream’, as she told herself, on a two-month scholarship programme with a top marketing company. But as the 27-year-old content creator from Munich was walking around the trendy SoHo neighbourhood of Manhattan near her office and taking photos for a project, the dream ended abruptly. Instead, she became a statistic in a deeply disturbing criminal trend in the Big Apple.
Out of the blue, a complete stranger walked up to her and hit her in the face as he passed. The blow, which she describes as a ‘very hard slap’ near her eye, that she believes would have broken her nose had she not been wearing sunglasses, made her freeze in shock and terror. Gizem told the Mail she had been so focused on looking at her mobile phone that she never saw her attacker’s face and, scared that she might be hit again, she didn’t turn around to look at him but just kept walking.
On her third day in New York, a complete stranger walked up to Gizem Sirmali and hit her in the face as he passed Hollywood actor Steve Buscemi, 66, was left bruised and bloodied after he was punched in the face in one of the latest random attacks on a Kips Bay street in New York Turkish-.
