Time-lapse surveillance footage circulating on the internet shows a man entering a barbecue restaurant at around 2:40 a.m. local time on Friday and passing by a woman sitting and eating with her companions. The man appears to be approaching one of the women and putting his hand on her back before grabbing her by the wrist and pushing her away. The woman is heard questioning him, surveillance footage shows. After the woman’s resistance, the man responds by hitting the woman in the face. A fight breaks out between the two, as the surveillance shots show. The woman tries to push him away by trying to hit him with a glass bottle. Surveillance footage shows the woman’s friends trying to stop the quarrel and being beaten by the man as well as a group of other men rushing to the restaurant. In the video, many women are seen being punched, kicked, grabbed and dragged by their hair on the ground. The graphic video showing women being beaten has caused a national outcry over women’s safety. Following the release of the video, Tangshan police issued a statement Friday afternoon saying they had identified the suspects and were looking for them. In another statement issued Friday, Tangshan police said two women were taken to hospital after an attack and were in stable condition, while two other women suffered minor injuries. On Saturday, local police sent a statement saying they had arrested all nine suspects, including seven men and their two female companions. The report said that the two women victims who had suffered non-life-threatening injuries are being treated at the hospital and were in stable condition. The incident was widely discussed on Chinese social media over the weekend and provoked public outrage in the country. Some people on the Internet question the safety of women in China, while others discuss systemic violence against women in the country. Many celebrities have also come out to support the victims. Actor Jackie Chan posted on his Weibo account, saying: “I’m so angry and I can not sleep all night. What worries me the most is that only women came in to help each other, while the men standing next door they did nothing. “ Provincial authorities ordered the criminal investigation into the case to be transferred to Langfang, a separate town in Hebei Province, according to a Langfang police statement late Saturday. Such a move usually occurs when the investigation is sensitive or important, or when the cases involve gang-related crimes and the local home should be avoided.
