Man who violently attacked woman in video caught

The man who violently beat up a woman on a street in a piece of surveillance footage has been caught at a community in Ganjingzi district, Dalian police said in a statement on late Tuesday night.

A gif image showing a man assaulting a woman on a street at around 00:44 a.m. on Saturday, June 22, 2019. [Image: Sina Weibo]

The man surnamed Wang, 31, is a native of Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, according to the statement published at 11:39 pm.

A preliminary investigation showed that Wang had emotional disputes with his girlfriend and was drunk when he met with the victim surnamed Wu, and he carried out the beating and coercive indecency, the statement said.

The man has confessed to the criminal facts, and police are making further investigations.

Zhao Lei, a partner lawyer and vice-director of the Beijing Zewen Law Firm, said that the man might face up to more than five years of imprisonment for the severity of the crime of coercive indecency and the insulting offense against the woman.

The footage recording the man punching and kicking a woman in 68 seconds on a street in the early hours of Saturday started to circulate Monday evening on social media, and soon turned into a hot issue on the internet.

In the footage, Wu was seen walking alone while looking at her cellphone. Suddenly, a man walked over to her and started to forcefully punch her in the face with his fists. He then kicked her in the head and abdomen after she fell on the ground. The man also attempted to pull off her skirt. At last, the man dragged her out of the monitoring range of the surveillance camera.

Police from Mianyang, Southwest China's Sichuan province, first noticed the footage on Monday and asked the internet users to provide clues over the night.

On Tuesday morning, the public order bureau of the Ministry of Public Security asked the public to provide leads on the incident, as there were no clear signs or landmarks to indicate where it took place. Also, the source of the footage remains unclear, the bureau said in its Weibo post.

The bureau added another post around noon on Tuesday again, asking people to provide information about the footage. It also asked the man to turn himself in.

Many people started to share in the comments their analysis of the footage based on the accent of the woman, the manufacture of the surveillance system and the environment of the scene.

Dalian police said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the incident took place in the city and the victim surnamed Wu called the police after she was attacked by a man in Ganjingzi district around 1 am on Saturday on her way home.

The 29-year-old woman has been released from the hospital after being treated for facial soft tissue injuries, the police said.