Da Lat restaurant suspended for 7 days for beating customer unconscious

Police in the Central Highlands' resort town of Da Lat on Saturday handed down punishments to a local restaurant for assaulting a group of customers.

Bich Thuy restaurant in the town's night market has accordingly been suspended for seven days while its employee Lo Thieu Mai Trang, 29, was fined VND2.5 million ($110) for beating Do Sophia Thuy, a Vietnamese American tourist, unconscious.

According to the tourists' account, Thuy and five family members from the southern town of Bien Hoa were visiting the night market on Tuesday evening when they were invited to have dinner at the restaurant. The group however had a bad experience as the food was not properly cooked and the soup they asked for was not served as requested, creating tension with the restaurant's staff.

Before leaving, Thuy's cousin Nguyen Thi Cam Van attempted to take pictures of the restaurant, prompting the owner to yell at the group to stop for fear of them writing a bad review of the establishment on Facebook.

The restaurant's employees then assaulted the group to seize Van's phone, with Trang beating Thuy unconscious and Van suffering multiple injuries on her face.

While the tourists did not press charges against the restaurant, Da Lat police still decided to step in as the case has affected public order, security and created a bad image in the eyes of tourists as well as locals.

Da Lat has always been a hotspot for both domestic and foreign travelers, famed for its beautiful scenery and relatively serene weather year-round.

But not all tourists come back with sweet memories.

News about tourists being victims of physical assaults is not uncommon. In May, 2017, a 44-year-old female tourist was also beaten unconscious by a group of local people from a shop in Da Lat after returning overpriced goods from said shop.