BEIJING — Surveillance footage showing a hotel worker failing to intervene as a female guest was attacked has triggered anger in China.
The pair struggled for about three minutes after the assailant pounced while the victim searched for her room key after exiting an elevator. The Chinese woman was forced to the ground, with the attacker putting his hands around her neck.
A staff member who witnessed the woman being accosted did nothing to come to her assistance during Sunday's incident at the Beijing Wangjing 798 Heyi Hotel on Sunday night.
A female hotel guest finally came to her rescue and the victim fled.
"The real horrifying thing though is that people saw this and kept silent!"
In an interview with CCTV, the victim — who was identified as Wan Wan — said the attacker had followed her from the hotel's gate.
Police in China's central province of Henan later arrested a suspect in connection with the attempted abduction. Police have not yet determined when he will be returned to Beijing to potentially face charges.
The ordeal came to light after the victim created a social media account on China's Twitter-like Weibo service on Tuesday and posted the video and chronicled her experience. By Friday, she had accumulated more than 279,000 followers.
The footage also quickly became a top trending topic on Weibo with 273 million views and 2.5 million conversations about the attack.
"I was literally shaking when watching this video," one user wrote.
"As a man, I felt very scared watching this incident," another said. "The real horrifying thing though is that people saw this and kept silent!"
The hotel released a long statement expressing regret over the incident and defending its staff member's reaction.
"We'd like to apologize to our customer and the public," the statement added. "We have insufficient hotel security ... and should pay more attention to our customers."
Speaking to CCTV, Wan added: "I don't need a face-to-face apology. I only need the problems solved that I mentioned on Weibo."
