Police are investigating a video posted on Youtube of a woman being beaten by a man in a street in the Balluta area of St Julian’s.

The video, originally posted by a user named ‘BulgarianSoulja’ on January 22, has been viewed nearly 2,500 times.

It is filmed at night-time and shows two seemingly middle-aged men and a woman arguing in Maltese in a residential street. When the woman walks angrily away, one of the men follows and grabs hold of her.

The other man appears to try to calm the situation but as the argument intensifies he walks off, leaving the woman screaming hysterically as she is held in the grip of her aggressor.

Moments later she is grabbed by the hair and thrown to the floor by the man, who then kicks her before slamming her against a car and striking her repeatedly.

At this point the second man intervenes and the attack stops. The aggressor is seen walking towards his car while the other man makes a call on his mobile phone and the woman lies on the floor weeping.

The aggressor pulls up next to them in his car and an animated discussion between the two men ensues until a taxi pulls up behind them.

The woman and the second man eventually depart together in the taxi, leaving the aggressor standing in the road shouting threats at them in Maltese and English. He then casually lights a cigarette, climbs into his car and drives away.

Comments have been left on Youtube accusing BulgarianSoulja of cowardice for filming nine minutes of footage and uploading it onto the internet rather than calling the police.

The person who posted the video describes himself as a 21-year-old Bulgarian student living in Malta on his Youtube channel. Although he did not respond to messages from this newspaper, he admits to cowardice in comments under the video but says he was afraid to act because the men were bigger than him.

The video was reposted on February 15 by a young Maltese man who lives in St Julian’s on his Youtube account and had been viewed over 1,800 times up to yesterday. The man, whose Youtube user name is ‘richie7778’, told The Sunday Times he reposted the video because he hoped someone would recognise the aggressor and inform the police.

“I was disgusted when I saw the video – these kind of people should not be allowed to walk the streets,” he said. Police confirmed they had received a complaint about the video and are investigating.

The video has emerged at a time when the Domestic Violence Commission is trying to raise awareness of domestic violence against women with a nationwide campaign.

A survey undertaken by the commission last year found that just over quarter of women in Malta have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused by their current or former partner.

Over 60 per cent of physically abused women had suffered severe violence that included being kicked, punched, dragged or threatened with a gun, the survey found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p05f3DPRZ2k

Warning: The footage includes swearing and vulgar language.