SEATTLE (Washington) • A Sikh man has been shot and wounded in Washington state by an attacker who approached him in his driveway and told him to leave the country, police and media reported.

According to a report in the Seattle Times, the gunman was a stocky, 1.8m-tall white man wearing a mask over the bottom part of his face.

The shooting, on Friday night in the city of Kent about 24km south of Seattle, followed a number of other attacks on Sikhs in the US over a period of more than a decade.

Hate-crime tracking groups say assailants have occasionally mistaken Sikhs for Muslims, who have been victimised in religiously-motivated crimes.

The Sikh man was working on his car in the driveway of his home when he was shot in the arm, according to Seattle television station KIRO 7, which spoke to a woman who knows the victim and saw him after he was struck by the bullet.

Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas said at a news conference: "Some comments were made to the effect of 'get out of our country, go back to where you're from', and our victim was then shot.

"To think that this could happen in our community was very surprising and extremely disappointing."

Sikh community members stood behind the police chief as he described the shooting.

The victim was released from hospital, the Seattle Times reported.

The Washington state shooting comes just weeks after an Indian man in Kansas was killed and another was injured by a gunman who told them to "get out of my country" before opening fire in a bar.

In the Kansas case, Mr Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, died from his wounds.

Mr Alok Madasani, 32, was released from hospital Thursday. A third person, Mr Ian Grillot, a patron at the bar, was shot while trying to intervene.

REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST