A foreign man was seen hurling abuses at fellow passengers on a Beijing subway train after he was asked to stop smoking inside the coach.
The footage showed a man, in his 20s, holding a cigarette while standing. He started swearing immediately after people objected to smoking inside the coach. A commuter, who was not seen in the video, was heard shouting: "This is China" to which the man retorted saying, "It's called the Middle Kingdom!"
The incident happened on February 24 on the capital city's circular Line 2. It came to light after a 20-second clip of the heated exchanges was uploaded on Beijing Times website on February 27, according to South China Morning Post.
A Weibo user by the name of jg_Jia Wujia also posted the video on the Chinese microblogging website. In his post, he said multiple passengers who objected to smoking and one person even tried to snatch the cigarette, reported the thebeijinger.com.
The person who filmed the incident reportedly said the foreigner was asked to move to another coach previously after passengers complained about smoking.
South China Morning Post, citing Beijing news, reported that local police are probing the matter.
Another similar incident was reported from New York, where a man was caught on camera smoking as he ducked under a subway as it pulled into the station, reported nypost.com on February 26.
"Right before the train hit him, he ducked under the platform. Everyone turned away, thinking he was dead — it was terrible," said the eyewitness who recorded the footage.
