Police have launched an investigation into a video in which a female customer was filmed fondling herself in a Chinese IKEA store.
The 2-minute clip shows the woman masturbating in a white shirt, without pants or underwear on, in an armchair and on a sofa as unwitting customers pass by in the background.
The video was rumoured to have been filmed in IKEA's only store in Guangdong Province, southern China, because the store announcements appeared to be in the Cantonese dialect, which is spoken in the south.
When the video was filmed was unclear, as none of the people in it were wearing any face masks, a common measure of precaution since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The clip has gone viral on Chinese social media and has even made it to some adult sites.
The Swedish-based home furnishing retailer would not disclose the location of the mall, telling local media that it had reported the video to police.
IKEA condemned condemn the kind of explicit behaviour displayed in the clip and promised to take “even more careful security and public cleanliness measures”.
In 2016, a woman posed half-naked in an IKEA store in Beijing; at the time, the store also notified the police, but there has been no word on whether the flasher was identified.
A year earlier, five people were arrested over a video of a couple having sex in the fitting room of a Beijing branch of the Japanese retailer Uniqlo.
According to Chinese laws, those who intentionally display nudity in a public place can be detained for a period of up to 10 days, while those who upload and share obscene content online face spending up to 15 days in detention and a fine of up to 3,000 yuan (nearly $420).
Chinese citizens can face up to ten days' administrative detention for deliberate public nudity, while disturbing public order is punishable by a three-year jail term. Those who upload and disseminate pornography may face a jail term depending on the gravity of the crime.
