It's been ten days since a vicious attack on four female diners at a barbecue restaurant in China appalled and angered the country, but an information vacuum around the victims has kept the Chinese internet asking: "What really happened to those women?"
The women were brutally assaulted by nine men in the northern city of Tangshan after one of them objected to being sexually harassed.
The attack -- captured on surveillance camera -- has sent shock waves across China, sparking outrage from women who have long faced harassment and gender-based violence.
But the ensuing silence from the victims and their families has unsettled many who fear the worst for the women, underscoring the lack of public trust in a governing system that routinely covers up unwelcome news -- a propensity that has only been further enabled by a raft of stringent restrictions under the country's zero-Covid policy.
Many expressed fears for the women after watching the harrowing surveillance footage. The men dragged one woman outdoors by her hair, hit her with bottles and chairs and repeatedly kicked her in the head. A woman who tried to help her was pushed away, landing heavily on the back of her head on the stairs.
Hours after the attack, a photo showed one of the victims lying on a hospital gurney covered in blood, with her head bandaged up. The next day, Tangshan police said two women were hospitalized with "non-life-threatening injuries" and were in "stable condition" -- but there has been no update on their situation since.
Throughout last week, rumors that some of the victims were in far worse condition than authorities claimed spread persistently online, despite repeated denials from the police, hospital officials and the local branch of the All-China Women's Federation, a state-backed women's group.
Some alleged the surveillance video captured only part of the attack, and the violence continued off camera in a nearby alleyway -- claims that CNN cannot independently verify. Another video circulating online shows residents laying down bouquets of flowers in the alleyway.
Speculation went into overdrive on Thursday, when more videos -- the authenticity of which cannot be confirmed -- emerged online.
On Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, the hashtag "Tangshan beaten girls follow-up" had been viewed more than 200 million times by Friday, generating more than 220,000 comments -- with many demanding to know what happened to the women.
In a statement Friday, Weibo said it had shut down 320 accounts for "spreading rumors" about the Tangshan attack. A widely circulated article on messaging app WeChat alluding to the rumors was also censored.