On Monday at 4:15am, in an incident which took place outside Bar 88 on Fumin Lu, French expat, Thomas [full name withheld at his request] was attacked by seven Chinese men. He suffered an open wound on his head that required multiple stitches and severe bruising on his back, side and chest.
In the video below, taken by eyewitness Shawn Kregan with his mobile phone, Thomas is seen being dragged out of the front seat of a taxi before being kicked and punched by two, then three Chinese men. Four more join in shortly after.
When Shanghaiist spoke to Thomas, he insisted that “nothing happen[ed] before and in the club. We were not drunk. We didn’t see the guys before. It was just pure racism.”
In response to the question of who the attackers might have been, he claimed, “We never met these guys, never even talked to them.”
Kregan, who filmed the video at considerable risk, happened to be outside Bar 88 enjoying some kebabs on the street. He noticed a group of Chinese men having some kind of debate amongst themselves, and “we were wondering what was going on,” he says.
20 minutes later, “a tall French guy with a blue t-shirt with his girlfriend came down the stairs together from Bar 88,” says Kregan. “The couple [got] into the taxi and the group of Chinese guys ran towards the taxi and started beating him inside the taxi and proceeded to drag him out of the taxi. Once outside, two of them beat one of his friends, and the other five or six ganged up on the main victim and started violently beating him and screaming insults at the top of their voice.”
One of the guys was armed with a small knife and took a swipe at Thomas, but fortunately missed, says Kregan.
The attackers soon fled from the scene, and the police arrived within ten minutes. Kregan accompanied the French man who was bleeding and in extreme pain to the police station.
We’re told officers made calls and sent for traffic camera footage, but were “not really motivated to do anything about it”. They also failed to take Kregan’s mobile phone footage which would have constituted useful evidence for tracking down the attackers.
Yet this is more than what could be said of the security guards, who were just standing there and watching. “They were just non-existent. Useless basically,” says Kregan.
We’ll update this space if we hear more. In the meanwhile, stay safe, people.
UPDATE: Four suspects have been apparently detained by following an investigation by the Shanghai police.
