Camera footage caught an elderly man forcefully sitting on a woman’s lap after she refused to give up her seat to him. When the driver attempted to intervene, the woman shoved the man to the ground.
The incident occurred in Lanzhou City in northwest China’s Gansu Province on April 13, according to multiple online news outlets.
A security camera facing the back of the bus revealed that all the seats on the bus were full. A man dressed in all black with a white goatee then demanded that a short-haired woman, who was sitting in back-to-back seat with the driver, get up for him to sit.
The argument intensified as the woman talked back to the man, pointing her finger at him. “I just won’t do it,” she could be heard saying in the security video footage.
“If you don’t let me, then I’m just going to sit,” the elderly man the replied, as he begun to elbow his way onto the woman.
All the passengers silently sat by and watched the conflict, a common phenomenon in China where people have faced extortion for getting involved in disputes.
The woman shoved at the man in an attempt to try and stop him from sitting on top of her, but to no avail. Their voices both got louder and more intense, and the man finally sat himself down atop the woman’s lap.
The driver then stopped the bus, and went back to attempt to resolve the dispute. He tool the elderly man by the hand, and pointed to a seat that had become available at the back of the bus. The man began to stand, but the woman said something that he seemingly did not want to hear.
“I’m going to call the police,” the woman said in the video, as she pointed her finger at the man’s face.
He then attempted to slap her, twice, but the driver intervened, stopping the conflict from escalating into something more physical.
The driver, once more, began convincing the elderly man to step down, but the woman at that point let out her anger.
She grabbed the man’s clothes on his back and flung him off of her lap. Although one hand was still being supported by the driver, the man’s other hand lost grip on the support bar and he collapsed to the ground.
The elderly man groaned loudly in pain.
“I didn’t hit him,” the woman said twice, as heard in the surveillance video.
The driver then joined the rest of the passengers, only being able to watch in silence.
According to multiple reports, the man was still unable to stand by the time the Lanzhou police arrived. Local news outlets reported that the police arrived and resolved the situation. In mainland China, this could mean that the police facilitated an exchange of money between the parties, usually in favor of the party who had suffered the greater physical injury.
No reports were given of the injuries suffered by either party.
