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Vancouver attack sparks fears for Asian students

VANCOUVER, Canada, Tuesday (AFP) English language schools dotting Western Canada fear a vicious attack on a South Korean co-ed could kindle dormant safety fears and cut into their rolls of Asian students.

The 22-year-old woman who was not named, was trying to sublet an apartment in Vancouver, when a man pushed her onto her bed, punched her in the face, leaving her spattered with blood and unconscious. No arrests have been made.

But the outrage recalled a spate of attacks on foreign students two years ago when the highly publicised beating of a South Korean woman out for a jog in a city park shocked her fellow students and stunned Canadians.

The attacker left his victim, Ji-Wan Park, crippled and with severe brain injuries, inflicting a painful financial wound on the language school industry. Shocked South Koreans, representing more than a third of the more than 63,000 students who enroll at 90 Canadian language schools, spending millions of dollars, abruptly cancelled plans to study in Canada.

The incident sparked fears that Vancouver's image as a safe place to study could again be tarnished, despite its being home to hundreds of thousands of Asian immigrants.

"If you ask Korean or Japanese students, most say the number-one reason they come to Vancouver is safety," said George Jasper, director of Language Repair Shop.

"We have good relationships with overseas agents, but when something like this happens, they send students to other countries. It scares us that Korean students might choose to study in a different country." Akiko Okawado, a 30-year-old Japanese student who lives alone in downtown Vancouver, said she felt safe before hearing about the attack in her neighbourhood, but now will not walk alone down empty streets.

"I used to think that Vancouver was very safe, but now I think it's a bit dangerous, especially at night," she said.

"Our parents worry about us. They don't know Canada, only that it's very near America and my mother thinks America is unsafe.

Vancouver police and the Canadian Association of Private Language Schools downplayed concerns, noting that schools now offer safety training and stressed that attacks on students over the past two years were random and unrelated, including the murder of a Chinese university student by her Chinese boyfriend.

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