Elderly woman fights off attacker in San Francisco as vigils against Asian hate crime held across...

An elderly Asian woman fought off an attack in San Francisco by a young white man as vigils were being held across the country for Asian American victims of hate crimes.

Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, picked up a paddle and hit back at a man who attacked her as she was waiting to cross the street. Witnesses say she stood her ground after being punched in the face, using the wooden paddle to defend herself and leaving the man with a bloody mouth.

The attack comes following the death of eight people in Atlanta spa shootings. Six of the victims were women of Asian heritage.

In a video posted on Twitter by KPIX sports director Dennis O’Donnell, the woman can be seen holding an ice pack to her heavily bruised eye and holding on to the wooden plank with her other hand. The man with the bloody mouth is handcuffed to a stretcher as he gets wheeled away by first responders.