Swollen, bruised face for boy, 5, after alleged slap from Chinese father of kindergarten friend caught on video watched by 400 million online
- Playground dispute at nursery school ends in family-on-family violence, broken leg for grandad
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A Chinese father has been detained on a charge of assault after allegedly slapping a boy from his son’s kindergarten and breaking the leg of the boy’s grandfather.
Police in Nanjing, eastern China, said the 33-year-old father, surnamed Lu, went to the other boy’s home on Saturday to ask for an apology after learning the boy had allegedly hit his son at kindergarten earlier that day.
When Lu arrived, he slapped the boy so hard he flew out of the plastic chair he was sitting on and onto the floor, video of the incident shows.
The boy’s 64-year-old grandfather, surnamed Zu, then rushed to defend his grandson brandishing the plastic chair and a wooden chair with which he was allegedly trying to hit Lu.
Police said Lu is accused of then pushing Zu to the floor, leaving him with a broken leg.
Zu’s family reported the incident to the police who arrested Lu the next day, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
The feud started when Zu’s grandson allegedly used a toy the two boys were fighting over at kindergarten to scratch the back of Lu’s son’s head which left the boy with a minor cut.
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The mother of the boy who inflicted the minor cut, surnamed Tang, had planned to take her son to Lu’s home with gifts that evening so her son could apologise to the other boy.
The two families live in the same community and the boys often visit each others’ homes. They are both five years old.
However, before Tang was able to do so, Lu, his wife and their son turned up at their home.
Surveillance footage shows Lu sitting in a chair and yelling at his son’s friend with the boy’s grandfather sitting next to them.
“You shouldn’t use stuff to beat other people. Can you hear me? Answer me,” Lu can be heard yelling in the video.
Then Lu slaps the boy across the face with such force that the child falls over backwards out of his chair.
After slapping the boy, Lu continued yelling: “Will you hit others again in the future?”
Lu then says to the boy’s grandfather: “Sorry that I didn’t control myself. Sorry!”
“It’s wrong for you to do this,” the grandfather responded before picking up the chairs and trying to hit Lu with them. Lu then pushed the grandfather to the floor.
Tang said the grandfather is being treated for a broken leg in hospital, adding that the slap her son received had left his face swollen and bruised.
A video of the incident has been viewed more than 400 million times on Weibo.
“A basic principle is that an adult must not use his physical advantage to beat a child, no matter the reason. If a kid hits your kid, you can let your kid fight back, or you can strike that kid’s parents,” one poster wrote, adding: “You attacked a kid first. You deserve judicial punishment.”
Another said: “Both parties are at fault. The pre-condition for the incident is that a kid hurt the other kid. This action could have led to serious injury. I think what Lu did was the natural impulse of an ordinary father.”
