A MAN beat a 9-year-old boy bad enough to cause injuries in a game room in the Meilin area of Futian District on March 10. The man became enraged and took revenge after his son got into a fight with the other boy a few minutes before.

    The two boys had been fighting with each other in the game room in order to get game coins. Xiaoyu, the boy injured by the man, started the fight by pushing the other, shorter boy, the surveillance camera footage showed.

    Some adults in the game room stopped the fight and Xiaoyu walked away after pushing the other boy once more in the back of the neck.

    A few minutes later, a man in red, who was reportedly assumed to be the shorter boy’s father, walked back into the room with the boy. Without saying anything, the man began beating Xiaoyu on the head and knocked him onto the ground.

    The staffers at the game room stopped the man from beating Xiaoyu, but the man continued to kick the boy with his feet. A staffer later said that the two children had not been fighting seriously, but the adult used a lot of force.

    Xiaoyu said that his mouth was bleeding and he felt pain in his abdomen. However, the boy did not go home to tell his parents about the fight afterward, but instead went to one of his classmates’ birthday party.

    It was the parents of Xiaoyu’s classmate that informed his parents about his injuries. Xiaoyu’s parents then called the police and took their son to Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital. A preliminary diagnosis suggested that the boy had suffered injuries to his abdomen.

    Xiaoyu’s father said that he was astonished to see how hard the man had beaten his son. The father did not want to reconcile privately despite the fact that the wife of the man in red had come to the family and made an apology.

    Police are investigating the case. (Zhang Qian)