Beijing goes wild for iPad 2; Four reportedly injured in Apple store melee
Injured Chinese men and women are seen in the aftermath of a scuffle at Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing, China.
Chinese policeman takes photos of the broken glass door. (AP)
A brawl(争吵;打架)broke out in Beijing Saturday as tech-hungry Apple fanatics waited anxiously on line to get their hands on the iPad 2, state news reported.
The incident is being blamed on a "foreign" Apple store employee, the Beijing News said.
The employee allegedly(据称)pushed and beat several people accused of jumping the line. This sparked(引发)a melee(互殴)which lead to four people getting injured and a glass door being shattered(砸碎), according to the report.
Hundreds of iPad-craving(渴望得到iPad的)consumers were in line for hours waiting for the store to open. Apple started selling the updated version of their popular tablet computer in Beijing and Shanghai on Friday.
The store in Beijing's chic(时尚)Sanlitun(三里屯)commercial district(商业区)closed early Saturday because of the altercation(争吵), but according to a voice recording on the store's phone was open for business Sunday.
"We're working hard to get the iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible," said Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman at Apple. Demand for the iPad2 "has been amazing," she said.
One 30-year-old man, Wang Ming, claimed to have been hit in the head with a bottle.