A Sikh man running for a city council in South Australia’s Port Augusta local government area was targeted by a person sitting in a truck, who shouted racist slurs at a life-size cutout of the candidate, and eventually ran his vehicle over it, ABC News reported on Tuesday. A video of the incident was posted on Facebook.

The candidate, Sunny Singh is an Indian immigrant who owns a taxi company in Port Augusta.

Singh told the network that he did not know who the man was, had never seen him and never met him. He added that he could not bear to watch the whole video. “None of the people who know me or have met me in the past, they could not watch the whole video,” he said.

Singh added that he had never been racially targeted in Port Augusta before. “I was amazed how welcoming the people of Port Augusta were when I came here,” he said. “This is the first time this has happened here.” He said that the Port Augusta community had rallied behind him, with hundreds of comments and messages on Facebook supporting him.

South Australian Attorney-General Vicki Chapman said the footage was “disturbing, and on the face of it, racist conduct”. She said the police were investigating the matter.

Port Augusta Mayor Sam Johnson said he was shocked by the violence and racism in the clip. “Appalled, absolutely appalled, gutted, outrageous – in today’s society, what would possess anyone to do that?” he asked. “How can that be entertaining when you’re personally attacking an individual or a race?”

The trucking firm pictured in the video, Grant Moroney Trucking, has been suspended as a service provider for Mogas, a fuel company. Mogas’ General Manager for Fuels Rick Conti said that the man’s actions in the video are “racist comments, and abhorrent, as we reject them completely. They are damaging to the community and the trucking industry nationally.”

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