By ZHANG YU in Shijiazhuang | chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies | Updated: 2022-06-12 09:03
A video screenshot from Sina Weibo shows several men beating female customers at a restaurant in Tangshan, north China’s Hebei province, on Friday.
Related: All suspects involved in violence against women in Hebei captured
The nine men suspected of brutally assaulting a woman and her dining partners in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan have been formally arrested, the police bureau handling the case said on Sunday.
Surveillance footage shows a man approaching a table at a barbecue restaurant in Lubei District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, and touching the woman around 2:40 a.m. Friday, then hitting her after she l pushed back.
Then eight other men join them. The woman is dragged out of the restaurant by her hair and brutally beaten. His catering partners are also attacked when they try to help him.
Local police said four women were injured and two of them were being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The graphic video went viral online and talk of the brazen attack in front of many other clients and servers dominated Chinese social media on Saturday and Sunday.
By Saturday, all the suspects had been captured by local police.
And on Saturday evening, a police branch from another city, the Guangyang District Branch of the Langfang Public Security Bureau, had been assigned to investigate the case, in an apparent effort to avoid local interference.
After the case circulated online, several Tangshan residents posted videos with real names reporting gangs that had perpetrated violence against them, including a woman reporting that she and her friends were kidnapped and assaulted in may.
According to the procedures for handling administrative or criminal cases by public security organs stipulated by the Ministry of Public Security, the administrative or criminal cases fall under the jurisdiction of the public security organ of the place where the illegal act was committed.
But for major and complicated cases, the public security organ at a higher level can deal with them directly or refer them to other organs in the jurisdiction.
Contact the writer at zhangyu1@chinadaily.com.cn