Man arrested for biting victim's face in anti-Muslim attack

A Virginia man accused of biting another man's face after making anti-Muslim slurs in the car park of a busy shopping mall last year was arrested on Monday.

Robin McGreer, 35, was charged with bias-related malicious bodily injury, Fairfax County police said in a statement.

McGreer approached a 31-year-old man on November 27 in the car park at Tysons Corner Centre, started a conversation and threatened him with racial insults, according to investigators. 

The two started fighting and police said McGreer bit the victim in the face before fleeing.

The threats and slurs at issue were anti-Muslim, according to police spokeswoman Megan Hawkins.

The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, Hawkins said.

The delay between the incident and the arrest was due to thorough investigation, she added.

Last week two Indian men were shot in a bar in Kansas City by a patron who reportedly shouted "get out of my country" before opening fire on them.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani, 32, was wounded in the suspected hate crime.

Authorities arrested 51-year-old Adam Purinton and charged him with premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder. He is being held on $2 million bond.

The incident comes amid a tense atmosphere in the US, as evidence grows of increased hate crimes since the contentious presidential campaign and the election of Donald Trump. 

The number of hate groups rose for the second year in a row in 2016 and anti-Muslim groups nearly tripled, according to an annual census by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

"The growth has been accompanied by a rash of crimes targeting Muslims," the organisation said last week.