A post looking for the suspect in the video spreads widely on Sina Weibo Photo: A screenshot of Sina Weibo

Police in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province said they were investigating into the case after a video in which a man beats a woman at night on the street went viral and triggered outrage on Chinese social media.    

Dalian police announced on their Sina Weibo account on Tuesday that a woman surnamed Wu reported to them on June 22 that she was beaten by a man on her way back home around 1 am. 

"The case is under investigation, and that is all we have to say," a member of staff at Dalian Public Security Bureau told the Global Times on Tuesday, but refused to release further details. 

Wu suffered facial injuries, and was discharged from the hospital after treatment, the announcement said. 

A report from thepaper.cn late Tuesday said Dalian police are investigating a suspect. 

The announcement came three days after the video of a man brutally beating a woman on the sidewalk went viral over the weekend. In the video, the man punches and kicks the woman many times and tears her shorts.

The video quickly became a hot topic online, with many netizens demanding that the man be severely punished. A hashtag on Weibo, "Collect clues for the beating girl video," had been viewed nearly 30 million times as of press time.  

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security and many local police agencies also helped to collect clues and comb the case on Weibo, before Dalian police officially announced the case.  

Some netizens criticized the Dalian police for making the announcement late given Wu's report on June 22. Some also cared about Wu's injuries, which they said were unlikely to be just facial injuries as her head and belly had been kicked and punched by the man.