AN angry man threw a 4-year-old boy off of a soccer field in Futian District while playing soccer on Sunday, which irritated the boy’s family and triggered a scuffle, Shenzhen TV reported yesterday.

    The attacker turned out to be a local student studying at an Australia university. The man, later identified as Yang, was thought to be well-educated but what he did was shocking, the broadcaster said.

    From the footage recorded by a surveillance camera, several children were chasing after each other around two soccer players on the field while the players were getting ready to play.

    One of the players, Yang, stood up to protest because their warm-up exercises were being interrupted by the children. When the children didn’t listen to his complaint, Yang grabbed one of the children and threw him off the field onto the lawn. Shenzhen TV broadcast footage of the attack, apparently videotaped with a mobile phone by someone at the unidentified soccer field.

    A witness later said that the boy’s father, named Liu, was resting near the court. When he was told that his boy was bullied by an adult, Liu got up and fought with Yang. Soon, players from the two teams joined the fight. Liu was a member of one of the teams.

    A witness and Liu’s teammates defended their actions by saying that they were angry because Yang had refused to apologize from the beginning.

    The fight ended when police intervened, and the men from both sides were taken away by the police for investigation.

    The boy was sent to a nearby hospital. The boy was not severely injured but required further observation. Liu said if not for the soft ground at the soccer field, his son may not have been so lucky.

    Yang’s friend told the TV reporter that the kids had affected him while they were playing around. Also, it was said that some of the kids had used water bottles and ropes to hit Yang.

    Since the boy was not badly hurt, the two parties decided to reconcile at the police station. The father of the boy admitted that he had started the fight, because he lost his temper at Yang’s dangerous behavior.

    Liu said that Yang’s mother had sincerely requested the reconciliation, and that Yang also apologized. Liu said that he hoped the incident wouldn’t affect Yang’s study in Australia and urged parents to rethink how they educate their children.

    (Zhang Qian)