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Woman Accused Of Making Up Story Of Anti-Muslim Harassment On Subway

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Wednesday said a New Hyde Park teen made up a story about being verbally attacked on a New York City subway train because she is Muslim.

Yasmin Seweid, 18, was brought in for questioning by police around 2:30 p.m., sources told CBS2. She was charged with filing a false police report and obstructing governmental administration, sources said.

Seweid claimed that she was verbally assaulted by a group of three men on the subway around 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1. She told CBS2's Tracee Carrasco she got on the No. 6 Train at 23rd Street and Park Avenue after leaving an event at Baruch College.

"I heard them talk, but I had my headphones in, I wasn't really listening, I had a long day. And they came closer and I distinctly heard them saying, 'Donald Trump,'" she said.

Seweid said she was then verbally attacked by the three drunk, white men.

"They were surrounding me from behind and they were like, 'Oh look, it's an f-ing terrorist,'" she said. "I didn't answer. They pulled my strap of the bag and it ripped, and that's when I turned around and I was really polite and I was like, 'can you please leave me alone?' and everyone was looking, no one said a thing, everyone just looked away."

Seweid said no one stopped the men, not even when she claimed they tried to tear off her hijab.

"They kept saying, 'You don't belong here, get out of this country, go back to your country,' and finally they came really close and they were like, 'Take that rag off your head,'" she said.

Seweid also criticized President-elect Donald Trump personally.

"The president-elect just promotes this stuff and is very anti-Muslim, very Islamophobic, and he's just condoning it," she said.

Seweid's story had seemed to be one of several cases of assaults reported against Muslim women in recent weeks.

But on Wednesday, police said Seweid made up the story of her attack. Sources said police observed inconsistencies in her story, and said she admitted to making up the story to get out of a "family problem," sources said.

Last week, Seweid went missing for a few days, but was later found safe. She had been carrying a bag of clothing when she left her home.

It is unclear what Seweid was doing between the time she vanished and when she reappeared this past Saturday, CBS2's Valerie Castro reported.

Seweid was awaiting arraignment Wednesday night.

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