The recently opened Universal Beijing Resort has fired a staff member accused of taking upskirt photos of a female visitor amid a new wave of controversy.

A woman took to social media platform Weibo on Saturday to share details of a terrifying experience that occurred on Sept. 23. She explained that a man had been standing behind her and secretly filming up her skirt using his cellphone camera. A friend of the woman spotted the offender, and he was caught before the police were called.

In a video accompanying the post, the man can be seen being held while begging for mercy. At the local police station, he was identified as an employee at the resort and numerous upskirt photos of other women were found on his phone, she said. 

The Tongzhou district police released a statement Sunday confirming the woman’s allegations. They added that a 25-year-old man, surnamed Xiao, had confessed to the offense and been placed in administrative detention for 10 days as punishment.

"We are angered and appalled to learn that a visitor to the park was subject to nonconsensual photo taking. We deeply apologize to her for what she experienced and will do our best to provide follow-up help," said a statement released by Universal Beijing Resort on Sunday.

The statement went on to say that the resort had already fired the employee as the offense violates the privacy and security of its visitors, goes against the company's culture and values, and violates relevant laws and rules. It concluded by saying that the resort will support the police and form a special work team to coordinate the investigation.

Universal Beijing Resort promised to learn from the incident and strengthen its security and operation work to prevent such an event from happening again.

The victim later also confirmed on social media that the resort's customer service staff had been in touch with her to offer an apology and options to handle the incident. "I hope everyone keeps alert regarding such matters; protect yourselves!" she wrote.

Since its opening, Universal Beijing Resort has proved to be a popular tourist destination, although it has also been entangled in a series of controversies. Several incidents of uncivilized behavior have occurred during interactions with the Transformers villain Megatron at the resort which have gone viral. The resort has also been subject to complaints about ticket scalpers, crashes of its online ticketing platform, expensive food and merchandise, and rudeness from staff members. 

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