A woman has been arrested after sickening footage showing nursery staff slapping, beating and kicking toddlers went viral.
The private kindergarten in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam was exposed after harrowing footage of children being beaten was widely shared online.
A student newspaper published the sickening video after being tipped off about child abuse at the nursery, which has now been shut down.
Owner Pham Thi My Linh was recorded slapping and caning some of the 30 infants in her care and has now admitted they were punished for being ‘too playful’.
The private kindergarten in Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam has been closed after a video showing shocking footage of the children being beaten went viral online
Staff were taking care of around 40 children aged between two and four years old, whose parents are mostly factory workers in the area
Parents stormed the centre on Sunday to rescue their children after the secretly-recorded footage was published online.
Police have shut down the nursery while the owner Linh faces up to three years in prison on abuse charges.
The other two members of staff, named only as Quynh and Dao, have not been traced by police but it has also emerged neither holds qualifications in child care.
Disgusted parents have now recalled in horror how they would drop their children off in the morning and staff would laugh and joke with them.
Unbeknownst to them, their children – aged between two and four years old – were being locked away for hours at a time with workers who would beat them with items ranging from hairbrushes to knives.
Linh has admitted she punished the children for being ‘too playful’ and said she was ‘very wrong’ to have allowed such things to happen, claiming that she had lost control in a ‘fit of anger’.
The nursery has up to 50 children a day aged between two and four years old, with most of the parents being factory workers at nearby plants
Disturbing incidents captured on camera show a young boy being repeatedly struck around the head
Linh charged VND1.25 million ($55) a month per child at the kindergarten which was popular with factory workers.
The video shows Linh slapping a little boy repeatedly in the face to force him to say hello to her, and hitting a small girl on the head with a big plastic can because she had crawled out of her place.
She is even seen tapping a knife on a child’s head and throwing metal poles at the children in her care to force them to eat.
The trio were secretly filmed using anything close to hand to beat the toddlers including a slipper, a comb, a broom, a spoon, a pan lid.
Local reports say the children were tortured throughout the day while happy kids’ songs were playing in the background.
Parents were quick to react after the video was posted on Sunday afternoon, and stormed the centre to rescue their children.
At least eight families have lodged petitions demanding criminal charges.
Images of child abuse at care centers are no longer rare in Vietnam, but criminal charges are rarely brought against the culprits.
They cause widespread anger every time they come to light, especially if they suggest long-term abuse of a large number of children.