Passersby rushed to the assistance of a woman and her daughter after a man grabbed the girl and attempted to wrest her away from her mother in Neihu District, Taipei City, Wednesday, August 8.

At around 6:00pm a woman named Wu was walking hand in hand with her daughter on Minquan Road, when a man standing outside a cafe suddenly lunged forward and grabbed her 7 year-year-old daughter’s backpack. As Ms Wu pulled her daughter by the arm, the man grabbed the girl and picked her up, trying to wrest her away from her mother.

Ms Wu desperately struggled to hold on to her daughter while calling for help. Passersby rushed to her assistance, one threatening the man with pepper spray before he finally backed away.

After Ms Wu and her daughter continued down the street, the suspect picked up his bags and attempted to walk in the same direction as Wu. Four men blocked his way. Two of the men recorded the suspect on their phones, while two called police.

Police arrested the suspect at a convenience store around 100 meters from the scene of the incident. The suspect was identified as a 33 year-old man named Zhou. Zhou was employed as a lifeguard at a nearby swimming pool and was on dinner break at the time of the incident.

Zhou told police that he had mistaken Wu and her daughter as friends from Sanxia District, where he lives.

According to Sanli News, as Ms Wu struggled with Zhou, she couldn’t help thinking about the “little light bulb” case, where a three year-old girl was beheaded by a man in front of her mother in a random attack that occurred in the same district in 2016.

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