Eight people have been arrested in China following a vicious attack by a group of men on three women who were eating in a restaurant after one of them denied their unwanted attention.
CCTV footage shows a man walking into a barbeque restaurant in Tangshan at around 2.40am on 6 June, in northern China’s Hebei province, when he suddenly sets his focus on a woman sat sharing a meal with two companions at a table by the doorway.
He places his hand on her back, and she quickly grabs him by the wrist to push him away. A few seconds pass and the woman can be heard talking at him, he goes to put his arm around her once more before she pushes him back again – and he responds by striking her in the face.
A scuffle between the two begins – the woman tries to get him away from her by throwing a glass bottle, of what looks like beer, at his head. Her friend gets up and does the same by smashing another bottle at the side of the attacker’s head.
He then turns his attention to the friend, pushing her by the neck. She falls to the ground, only to be kicked, hit and smashed with crockery in the head by the initial perpetrator’s friend, who joins in on the brutal beatings.
The only time someone comes to the womens’ defence inside the restaurant is when the friend is being kicked at on the floor, when another of the three companions who watched the initial interaction between the man touching the woman’s back.
She protects her friend by using her body as a shield to stand over her, even withstanding when a chair is chucked over her back.
CCTV footage shows a man walking into a barbeque restaurant in Tangshan at 2.40am on 6 June, in northern China’s Hebei province, when he suddenly sets his focus on a woman sat sharing a meal with two companions at a table by the doorway
He places his hand on her back, and she quickly grabs him by the wrist to push him away. A few seconds pass and the woman can be heard talking at him, he goes to put his arm around her once more before she pushes him back again – and he responds by striking her in the face
But the woman initially attacked is targeted again by the perpetrator in the green jacket, who notices her stood up beside him, and quickly grabs her by the hair to punch her in the face and launch another onslaught of violence.
The footage shows the woman being dragged out of the restaurant as four men continue to savagely assault her.
Once outside, the violence continues, and when another woman steps in only to be punched in the face, knocking her to the floor where she smashes her head on the concrete floor.
Two women treated at hospital following the incident were ‘in stable conditions and not in mortal danger’, while two others sustained minor injuries, authorities said Friday (the woman who received the brunt of the attack, pictured in hospital)
He then turns his attention to the friend, pictured pushing her by the neck. She falls to the ground, only to be kicked, hit and smashed with crockery in the head by the initial perpetrator’s friend, who joins in on the brutal beatings
The woman who has now faced three minutes of constant blows to the head and body is seen on outside CCTV footage getting kicked in the head, dragged by her hair and pushed into broken glass on the concrete pavement.
A minute later, the men wander away from the scene down a side street behind the restaurant. The woman gets up and runs in a similar direction.
The alarming video clips have been widely shared online and has sparked outrage over the consequences of facing predatory sexual behaviour.
The footage shows the woman being dragged out of the restaurant as four men continue to savagely assault her. The woman has now faced three minutes of constant blows to the head and body, and when outside, she is smashed into the concrete pavement and pushed into the broken grass
When another woman steps in, she is punched in the face by the perpetrator, knocking her to the floor where she smashes her head on the concrete (pictured in the white t-shirt on the floor, closest to the door)
It has also renewed an online debate about sexual harassment and gender-based violence in China, where the conversation around women’s rights has grown in recent years despite pressure from a patriarchal society, internet censorship and patchy legal support.
Campaigners say domestic abuse remains pervasive and under-reported while prominent feminists also face regular police harassment and detention.
Web censors in China blocked keywords linked to the #MeToo movement after a wave of women accused university professors of sexual harassment in 2018.
Eight people have been arrested in China following a vicious attack by a group of men on three women who were eating in a restaurant after one of them denied their unwanted attention. Five perpetrators have been identified as the above on social media
Police in Tangshan city on Saturday said they had arrested eight people on suspicion of violent assault and ‘provoking trouble’, while a search for one other suspect was ongoing.
Two women treated at hospital following the incident were ‘in stable conditions and not in mortal danger’, while two others sustained minor injuries, authorities said Friday.
The attack generated hundreds of millions of comments on social media, where users slammed predatory behaviour and urged authorities to crack down on violence against women.
‘All of this could happen to me, could happen to any of us,’ said one commenter in a post liked over 100,000 times.
‘How is this sort of thing still happening in 2022?’ wrote another. ‘Please give them criminal sentences, and don’t let any of them get away.’
Last year, a Chinese man was sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife as she live-streamed on social media, in a case that shocked the nation.
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