Two young men are under arrest in connection with a video in which people can be heard chanting, “F*** the blacks,” and other derogatory phrases outside what’s described as a black student’s university dorm room, police in Nottinghamshire, England, said.
The video, viewed more than 1 million times since it was posted Wednesday to Twitter, shows only a wooden door with a metal handle. It was posted by Rufaro Chisango, a black student who said she filmed it Monday from inside her room in a residence hall at Nottingham Trent University.
The video’s minute-long audio track is stunning, with comments including “We hate the blacks,” “F*** the blacks,” and “We hate black people. White people are friends.” A man also says, “Sign the Brexit papers.”
At one point, a woman can be heard shouting, “Leave her alone.” The same voice also shouts, “The blacks and whites all together,” and, “I have a dream.”
The arrestees, both 18, were detained “in connection with racially aggravated public order offences” following reports of the social media post, according to a statement by Nottinghamshire police, who reached out to Chisango in a response to her Twitter post.
Police would not release the names of the men, who were in custody Thursday morning pending charges, a spokeswoman told CNN.
In its initial comment on the incident, a police spokesperson said, “We treat hate crime extremely seriously.”
“Those suspected perpetrators” also were suspended from the university, pending a full investigation of the video, Nottingham Trent officials told CNN Thursday morning in a statement. Officials would not identify the suspended students.
“This kind of vile behaviour will not be tolerated,” the statement adds. “We have contacted the student who made the complaint and are providing support to her and others affected. And we are liaising with the police about this incident,” the statement adds.
‘I’m the only black person on my floor’
In tweeting the video, Chisango wrote that she “wasn’t able to catch (on video) what else they were saying which was ‘blacks would go back to picking cotton.'”
She also explained why she recorded the incident from inside her room: “I’m the only black person on my floor and they were chanting this outside my door so don’t be surprised to why I didn’t leave my room,” she tweeted.
“Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel, in this 2018 people think this is still acceptable,” she wrote.
Chisango also said she shared the video after failing to get a response for two days after she lodged a complaint with the dorm’s reception staff.
In its statement, the university told CNN: “We are also working with our accommodation partner to understand why the University was only alerted to this on Wednesday evening after this was reported to them in the very early hours of Tuesday.”
CNN could not immediately reach Chisango for comment.