SHANGHAI: The experience of a woman in southern China who was locked in a freezer by a male colleague as she desperately banged on the door for help has trended on mainland social media.
The story has also sparked a widespread condemnation of the man.
The woman freed herself from the freezing storage unit minutes after calling her boss for help on her mobile phone, the news outlet The Paper reported.
Surveillance footage from a bakery shop in Jieyang of Guangdong province showed that on March 31, a woman worker entered the freezing storage unit to get some raw materials and left the door slightly open.
A male worker approached the door, looked into the storage unit briefly before shutting the door and running away.
He soon returned to the scene, and the sound of the woman banging on the door from the inside was heard in the surveillance footage but the man did not go to open the door.
The temperature in the unit was minus 18 degrees, the report said.
More than two minutes later, the woman opened the door from inside, she was uninjured.
The man initially did not acknowledge that he had intentionally closed the door.
He only confessed to making a “mistake” and apologised to the woman when police arrived at the scene.
He was given a warning by the police.
The woman, who was identified as Momo on social media, said she was not satisfied with the way the police handled the case and the man’s “insincere” attitude in making the apology.
“I was extremely scared. I slammed hard on the door, but was not responded to by anyone outside,” she was quoted as saying.
Momo said she was angry about her colleague’s behaviour and still felt frightened.
“If I did not have my mobile phone with me, I dare not imagine what would might have happened,” she said.
On April 24, a spokesperson from the local government told the media that the case had been “resolved satisfactorily”.
“It was a prank. Colleagues were just playing a joke,” the spokesperson said.
The incident sparked an online backlash.
“The man should be charged with intentional homicide,” one netizen said.
While another said: “This store has loopholes in its management. Why did it not carry out freezing storage safety training for employees?” - South China Morning Post
