A racial attack against white women by eight black youths startled Long Beach City in Los Angeles County, residents said Thursday.

Los Angeles County prosecutors Wednesday filed hate crime charges against the black youths accused of beating three white women on Halloween night in an incident that underscores racial tension in the racially diverse city of 460,000, according to local police.

Authorities said they concluded that the suspects - seven girls and one boy - beat the women because they were white.

The case has been the subject of a wrenching public dialogue over the last few weeks in the city, with civil rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People expressing dismay over the attack and the city holding a public forum meant to ease tensions, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The violence occurred on a predominantly white block known for elaborate Halloween decorations and fancy candy. According to police, a group of black youths - mostly teenagers but some as young as 12 - allegedly hurled racial insults at the women, threw objects at them and then knocked them to the ground with kicks, punches and skateboard blows.

The attack was broken up by a black man who stopped his car and pulled the assailants away. But the women - two of them 19 years old, the other 21 - suffered injuries, including broken bones.

Officials said the three white women were about to attend the Halloween block party. Shortly before they were attacked, they had been subjected to catcalls from a group of mostly young black males.

Anitra Dempsey, the city's human dignity officer said she got calls from blacks fearful of a backlash and from whites fearful of being targeted.

"I think everyone has been on edge," Long Beach Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga said. "We have neighbors looking at neighbors wondering what they knew and what their involvement was. There's an underlying uneasiness."

This was the second hate crime case brought to court in one week in Los Angeles County.

On Monday, three gang members were sentenced to life in prison without parole on conviction of deadly hate-crime attacks against African Americans.

They were convicted of carrying out a conspiracy that violated their victims' rights to live and walk in Highland Park, Los Angeles. The conspiracy included several killings.

The convicts, members of the Latino gang "the Avenue," had been prosecuted for breaking federal hate-crime laws - statutes typically used against white supremacist groups.

Source: Xinhua