Violence at Beijing Apple store
By Xu Chi |
May 8, 2011, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN Apple store in Beijing was temporarily closed yesterday evening after one of its foreign staff allegedly attacked four Chinese customers waiting in lines outside with an iron rod, news website ifeng.com reported.
Angry customers, demanding an explanation from the foreign worker, swarmed toward the store and pulled down its glass gate, breaking it into pieces, reported Sina.com, one of China's major news portals.
The four customers, two young men and two middle-aged women, were sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment to head and back injuries. Beijing police are looking into the case, the website said.
Witnesses said the accident occurred yesterday afternoon at the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area, where a crowd of people were queuing in front of the store to purchase the company's latest product, the iPad 2. But the chaos began as some customers kept jumping the queues, later leading to conflicts between customers and the store's guards who were on duty to maintain the order, witnesses said.
The situation became violent when a foreigner, allegedly called John and wearing Apple store staff uniform, came out of the store and started beating some customers, witness said.
As the victims lay on the ground with blood on their faces, the foreign worker then went back to the store, prompting some customers to break the glass entrance door, said the website.
At the time of going to press yesterday, Apple officials were not answering phone calls.
Some netizens, who claimed to be witnesses, said on microblogs that they believed scalpers were to blame for starting the chaos.
The scalpers were said to have hired students to join the queues as the Apple Store restricted each customer to purchase only one or two iPads on the second day the new product was available in the store.
The scalpers planned to purchase iPhones and the new iPads in great numbers until the products were out of stock so they could sell their goods at higher prices.
But tensions were thought to have risen after they refused to pay the students they had hired to queue up for them.
Angry customers, demanding an explanation from the foreign worker, swarmed toward the store and pulled down its glass gate, breaking it into pieces, reported Sina.com, one of China's major news portals.
The four customers, two young men and two middle-aged women, were sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment to head and back injuries. Beijing police are looking into the case, the website said.
Witnesses said the accident occurred yesterday afternoon at the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area, where a crowd of people were queuing in front of the store to purchase the company's latest product, the iPad 2. But the chaos began as some customers kept jumping the queues, later leading to conflicts between customers and the store's guards who were on duty to maintain the order, witnesses said.
The situation became violent when a foreigner, allegedly called John and wearing Apple store staff uniform, came out of the store and started beating some customers, witness said.
As the victims lay on the ground with blood on their faces, the foreign worker then went back to the store, prompting some customers to break the glass entrance door, said the website.
At the time of going to press yesterday, Apple officials were not answering phone calls.
Some netizens, who claimed to be witnesses, said on microblogs that they believed scalpers were to blame for starting the chaos.
The scalpers were said to have hired students to join the queues as the Apple Store restricted each customer to purchase only one or two iPads on the second day the new product was available in the store.
The scalpers planned to purchase iPhones and the new iPads in great numbers until the products were out of stock so they could sell their goods at higher prices.
But tensions were thought to have risen after they refused to pay the students they had hired to queue up for them.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
