'Horror movie': Disturbing CCTV of attack on woman and daughter stuns China
WARNING - DISTURBING CONTENT: Terrifying video likened to "a horror movie" has stunned China while reigniting domestic violence concerns for women across the nation.
CCTV footage shows the moment a woman and her daughter are dragged inside their apartment by a man concealed in a rain coat.
The mother glances into the CCTV camera as she unlocks the door seconds before the attack on July 6.
The woman and child can be heard screaming after the man jumped out from the staircase above outside their apartment in Laiyang in the northeastern province of Shandong.
The disturbing video has since gone viral on Chinese social media site Weibo, and has been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
Manya Koetse, editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, a site covering viral tends on the platform, said the video resembled something out of "a horror movie".
Attacker confirmed as woman's ex-husband
Police later confirmed in a statement the man in the video was the woman's ex-husband, surnamed Zhan, who she had recently separated from.
The woman had contacted police the morning after the attack. Authorities allege Zhan forced his ex-partner to have sex with him four hours after dragging her and the daughter inside the apartment.
A separate video shows a topless, heavily tattooed Zhan exiting the apartment hours later.
Zhan was arrested on July 11 and is facing home invasion and sexual assault charges. If convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison, the South China Morning Post reported.
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The welfare of the woman and child have become a popular search topic in recent days, while news of Zhan's arrest has garnered more than half a billion views on Weibo.
Many users expressed dismay at the wording of Laiyang Public Security Bureau's statement for failing to use the word rape when describing Zhan's alleged crimes.
"Forced sex? It's rape," one person wrote on a state media post.
It comes weeks after women's safety in the country was thrust into the spotlight once again following the brutal attack on several women at a restaurant in Tangshan.
However Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court of China, has stressed domestic violence and offences against women will be treated "with the utmost severity," the South China Morning Post reported.
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