Chinese netizens were shocked when they saw a woman being stabbed to death by a man in a video which went viral on social media last week.
But what made them more disgusted was that the person who filmed the incident from a building in Dongguan city in Guangdong province last Thursday (April 7) did nothing to stop the attack, according to media reports in China.
In the video, a woman is seen screaming while lying on the ground in an alley after her waist was slashed by a man wielding a knife. He then fled the scene, reported Guangdong Television last Friday.
The victim was already dead by the time an ambulance arrived.
Although the suspect was arrested soon after the attack, residents in the Changan neighbhourhood in southern Dongguan told reporters that they were disappointed with the person who filmed the attack and slammed his indifference.
After watching the footage, netizens deduced that the incident was recorded from a window right above the scene.
A resident told the media: “If that witness were to call for help immediately, the woman might not have been killed.”
According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese media reports cited the police as saying that the suspect and the victim were apparently lovers, and that the suspect thought the victim was cheating on him.
Indifferent attitude
It is not the first time that some bystanders have done nothing when witnessing a deadly attack or tragic accident in China.
Last week, a woman was savagely beaten by a man at a Beijing hotel but no one stepped forward to help her. The incident was captured by the hotel’s CCTV.
Last year, a CCTV video showed an injured man staggering before collapsing by the roadside but pedestrians and motorists just looked the other way. He later died.
In 2011, a video showed a two-year-old girl being hit by a car. Passers-by ignored her while she was dying from her injuries. A video uploaded on Youtube in 2012 shows a woman being stabbed to death by a man in broad daylight. A witness is seen hurrying away from the scene.
chenj@sph.com.sg
