Man's 'disgusting' act at Sydney coffee shop triggers police search

Police are hunting for a man who "aggressively" threw hot coffee at an employee at a cafe in Sydney's west.

The incident happened at Soul Bowl in Rosehill with the cafe staff releasing CCTV footage of the assault on their social media.

"This morning one of our staff members was a victim of assault, where for NO REASON he had hot coffee aggressively thrown at his face after being sworn at, intimidated, bullied and abused with racial slurs," the cafe said.

"Disgusted is an understatement. We feel sick. Furious!"

In the video, a customer is seen at the counter, while a staff member is briefly seen behind the counter. The customer then hands over some money which the employee takes.

The customer then picks up two coffees while the staff member hands over his change and then the customer throws both coffees at the worker.

The owner of Soul Bowl, Lily, spoke to 2GB on Friday morning and explained the man seen in the video was trying to buy another woman a coffee when the incident unfolded.

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Lily explained the man and young woman did not know each other, but he was insisting on buying her the coffee in a "really aggressive manner".

The woman politely declined and the staff member said to the man he would not charge him for the woman's coffee. Then he threw the coffee at the staff member.

Police search for man who threw coffee

Soul Bowl went on to say on Instagram the cafe would not tolerate people making staff feel unsafe.

Officers were called to the cafe which is located in the carpark of a supermarket at around 11am on Thursday, NSW Police said in a statement.

There, officers were told about the incident where the 27-year-old employee had coffee thrown at them.

However, the man had fled the scene before police arrived.

"Inquiries continue to identify and locate the man depicted who is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Appearance, aged in his 30s, with short black hair and a beard, NSW Police said.

"He is shown wearing a white and grey ‘Champion’ hooded jumper at the time."

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