Horrifying video footage began circulating online yesterday showing a man viciously assaulting a woman in Dalian in the dead of night. According to media reports, the incident occurred at roughly 12.40am on June 22.

In the video, the man punches the unsuspecting woman – who appears to be looking at her phone – and she almost immediately falls to the ground. The man then carries out a prolonged assault on the woman, which included 19 punches and 10 kicks. Twenty-six of the blows were to the head.

At one point in the footage it appears the man is trying to take off the woman’s shorts or skirt. The video ends with the attacker dragging the limp victim off screen by her hair. We have chosen not to include the video in this post due to its graphic nature.

The whereabouts of the victim and the city the attack occurred in were a mystery up until this afternoon, as the video surfaced online on June 24 with no background information – such as the location of the surveillance camera that captured the assault.



The attacker dragging the woman from the scene of the crime. Screengrab via the Cover.

According to the Dalian Public Security Bureau, the woman in the footage has been located and is a 29-year-old from Liaoning province. Somehow, during or shortly after the attack, the woman managed to call the police and was taken to a hospital. She has since been treated and discharged.

In the minutes and hours after the footage of the attack surfaced online, the absence of information led public security bureaus in multiple Chinese cities to open investigations. The Dalian Public Security Bureau first stated yesterday that they were investigating the incident and there was much speculation on Chinese social media that the incident occurred in Dalian on Cangshan Lu.

According to the Cover, the Mianyang City Public Security Bureau was also looking into the incident, which swirled online speculation that the attack may have occurred in Sichuan province.



Additionally, a woman reported to police that the woman in the video was her relative and had been killed as a result of the attack, which she claimed occurred in Jiaoling County, Meizhou, Guangdong. Police in Jiaoling, however, quickly discounted this theory.

No word yet on the location of the man behind the attack, but it’s safe to assume authorities are actively hunting for his whereabouts. The tragic incident has understandably shaken Chinese netizens. Over 75 million people are following the story on Weibo as of press time.

[Cover image via Tencent News]

