Police locate 4 middle-schoolers who beat up 1st-grader after footage goes viral

BY SHANGHAIIST IN NEWS ON JUN 22, 2015 9:00 PM

Horrific video footage that went viral yesterday shows as a group of junior high school students in Qingyuan county, Zhejiang province brutally beat up a first-grader and burned him with cigarettes.

The nearly three-minute-long video (warning: viewers may find content extremely disturbing) was filmed inside a house, where the young boy was tied up with a rope, chased around and tortured by four elder boys. The middle-schoolers lit cigarettes and threw them down the kid's shirt, and one of the older boys was seen rubbing his feet on top of the first-grader's head.

The terrified child could only cry and beg for mercy as the older boys could be heard laughing throughout the video, which has since been removed from multiple Chinese web sites.

After quickly spreading online, the footage was brought to the attention of local authorities, who soon after launched an investigation into the matter. The county police this morning stated that the victim was found and the four teenagers who were present during the torture had also been identified.

According to an informant, the kid may have been caught stealing before the events took place. The police did not confirm the informant's claim, saying that the case is still under investigation.