A video showing a woman in Hong Kong being assaulted by a stranger while she was livestreaming has gone viral on social media. Clips of the video, which was originally streamed on Twitch on Sunday night, show the woman being accosted outside Exit C of the Central MTR Station, followed inside when she rejected the assailant’s advances, and subsequently forced against a wall and molested.
In the video, the woman is looking at the tram schedule at the Peddar Road tram stop when a man approaches her and attempts to help her. She later decides that she will take the MTR back home, and when she realises that they both can take a train to their separate destinations, they both cross the street to enter Central Station.
At this point, the man puts his arm around the woman’s shoulder and she attempts to pull away from him, eventually succeeding and running into the station. However, he follows her, despite her evident distress, and traps her against a wall, while she calls for help. He releases her and she runs further into the station and tells her audience — who have watched the entire incident unfold live — that she was just trying to help him.
The video has sparked outrage online, with netizens expressing their shock at the assailant’s behaviour and asking for the livestreamer to report him to the police. Some expressed disbelief that such an incident occurred in Hong Kong, a city generally regarded as safe for solo female tourists.
According to a Sing Tao Daily report, the assailant was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of indecent assault and outraging public decency. The livestreamer is currently in Macau, but revealed in a later broadcast that she will return to Hong Kong on Wednesday, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
Header image credits: @may5w via Twitch