Nine people have been arrested in China after viral footage showed several women being attacked at a restaurant.
The CCTV clip from northern Hebei province on Friday sparked widespread outrage.
It shows a man approach four women sat at a table at around 2.40am, when he places his hand on one of their backs.
She appears to reject his advances several times before he snaps and slaps her across the face – prompting her to fight back.
In the resulting melee, numerous punches and kicks are landed, a woman is battered over the head with a chair and drinks and bottles are thrown as various diners get involved.
Tables and chairs are scattered across the floor and a number of people get involved.
On Saturday, Chinese authorities said on the Weibo social media platform that they have arrested the nine individuals on suspicion of violent assault.
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The brawl at the barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, northern Hebei, saw a group of men entering the restaurant and brutally attacking the woman and her dining partners.
Footage taken from outside the restaurant also showed the attackers dragging the woman who had initially rebuffed the man’s advances out of the establishment and viciously beating her – with most passers-by and patrons of the restaurant looking on.
Pictures of her lying on a stretcher, with a swollen and bloodied face, as well as the footage of the attack itself, went viral online.
That also resulted in a new focus on misogyny and the treatment of women in the country.
It comes after a viral video of a woman being chained to a wall in a hut drew a major public backlash after Chinese authorities initially denied that she was a victim of human trafficking.
The woman was later found to have been sold as a bride.
In the latest incident, two women sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were receiving treatment in hospital. Their condition was reported to be stable.
Two others were slightly injured.
The footage of what happened both inside and outside the restaurant was just under five minutes. The Weibo user who was among the first to post the videos said it was ‘heart-breaking’ to watch.
The post read: ‘Does that mean that dining out is so unsafe now, do we have to bring men with us everywhere we go?
‘(These men) are no different from thugs.’
By Sunday, the video of footage filmed inside the restaurant had garnered more than 68 million views, while the footage showing the graphic assault outside the restaurant was taken down.
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