Old CCTV footage of an attacker violently beating a woman in China is falsely attributed to Muslim immigrants.
Claim
Rating
Explanation
A video purportedly showing a male attacker brutally punching and kicking a female victim on her head repeatedly is shared by a Twitter user named Gems of Islam. This tweet claims that the attacker is a Muslim and that he attacked and raped the victim in Spain. This video is shared by another Twitter user with the caption ‘tweeting it is Islamophobia’ in the context that the attacker is a Muslim. This tweet was retweeted more than 5000 times, had around 9800 likes.
What is the truth?
When watching the video closely we found the date of the CCTV footage mentioned as 22, June 2019. When reverse searching the keyframes of the viral video we found that the video is from China.
A Chinese website ‘China Plus’ published a news report on 25, June 2019 carrying a matching visual from the viral video. The article reports that a woman of 29-year-old was on her way home around 1 AM when the incident happened. The incident happened in Gajingzi district in Dalian, Liaoning Province of China. The CCTV footage went viral after which the Chinese police searched for the man in the video.
The victim was able to call the police after the attack and has also received medical treatment for her injuries, reported China Plus. With further search, a China Daily article is found reporting that Chinese police asked the help of the public to identify the man who is seen violently beating a woman in the CCTV footage.
The South China Morning Post article dated 26, June 2019 reported that Dalian police detained a 31-year-old man, surnamed Wang related to the viral video incident. It further stated that the accused did not know the victim earlier.
We found a notice issued by Dalian Police on the Guancha website mentioning that the accused Wang had an argument with her girlfriend before the incident and when he found a woman on the road, he beats her violently and molested her. Multiple other visuals of the accused after the arrest are featured in the article.
Conclusion
It is found that an old video of attacker Wang beating a woman brutally in China is shared to falsely accuse Muslims. The incident happened in China and not in Spain.
