In a case of alleged racial profiling in the US, police surrounded a Sikh man carrying a kirpan after getting calls about an apparent Muslim walking around a shopping centre with a 'large knife' or 'sword'.

Harpreet Singh Khalsa, 33, said he was the victim of racial profiling in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, but police stated that those who called in their concerns did the right thing.

Police in the Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, received multiple calls about an apparent 'Muslim man' walking around the Bethlehem Square Shopping Center with a "large knife" or "sword". Multiple officers responded to find Khalsa sitting inside a van parked in the fire lane.

"The cops surrounded me and told me to put my hands on my head," Khalsa was quoted as saying by WFMZ-TV. Khalsa, visiting from Maryland, was not carrying a large knife or sword. He was wearing a kirpan -- one of the five articles of the Sikh faith. Khalsa said he was scared having so many officers around him.

"Embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed, for even bothering to come to Bethlehem," Khalsa said.