A day after the attack, Tangshan police issued a statement saying two women had been treated for “non-life-threatening injuries” and were in “stable condition”. No other information was given. The victims, as well as their friends and family, also remained silent. On Tuesday, 11 days after the attack, the public security department of Hebei Province, where Tangshan is located, issued an extensive statement saying that two of the women, aged 31 and 29, “were hospitalized in the general ward for treatment and conditions have improved. ” The other two victims, aged 24 and 29, did not need treatment, he added. According to a forensic report cited by the police, the hospitalized women suffered “minor injuries” while the other two had “minor injuries”. The initial lack of information had led to repeated allegations that the leaked surveillance video recorded only part of the attack and the violence continued off-camera in a close alley – allegations that CNN could not independently verify. In an apparent attempt to disprove such rumors, Hebei police said in a statement that the suspects fled the scene at 2.47am. – seven minutes after the start of the attack. and at 2.55 the four victims were transported to the hospital by ambulance. Local police arrived at the restaurant at 3.09am, about half an hour after receiving a call from the public at the start of the attack, according to the announcement. But the statement was met with skepticism on the internet, with many criticizing the handling of the case by the authorities. A related hashtag on Weibo was viewed 450 million times in just a few hours. “Therefore, there are no photos or videos. Journalists are not allowed to interview (the victims) and only you can post information,” said a user on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like platform, referring to the lack of access provided to journalists. “A city without credibility – do we dare to trust the injury report? And how credible is this police statement?” added the user. Following the attack, Chinese authorities sought to quell discussions of gender-based violence and turn to local gang violence. State media reports focused heavily on the rapid police action to arrest the suspects and the two-week “storm” campaign announced by the Tangshan authorities to crack down on organized crime. Photos and videos of police officers – some armed with guns – guarding behind customers at open-air barbecue restaurants, similar to the one where the incident took place, flooded social media. In a statement Tuesday, police said four of the suspects had traveled to Tangshan from eastern Jiangsu Province three days before the attack to conspire with the other five to “engage in illegal online gambling and money laundering activities”. Several of them had criminal records, for offenses ranging from illegal detention to deliberate harm to others, the statement added. Police authorities also launched an internal investigation into whether the local police department did not respond in a timely manner and whether it violated laws and regulations during law enforcement. A deputy head of the local police department has been made available, the statement said. ,
