Police have appealed to the public for information about an assault in Sogi last Saturday night where a man and a taxi driver were both assaulted by a group of males and a female.

The assault of the two men was captured in a mobile phone video which was later posted online and went viral, though the Police were not alerted to the incident until Monday evening.

The taxi driver who was assaulted works for the Triple Seven (777) taxi stand in Sogi, according to the taxi stand owner Nouata Nouata, in an interview with the Samoa Observer. The fight, which led to the assault of the taxi driver and the unidentified man, occurred next to the taxi stand.

"Fortunately, by the time the fight happened, all the taxis were out and about dropping off passengers who just came from the hotels and nightclubs as it was closing time on Saturday," said Mr. Nouata. "It was only our base that was at the stand who got injured.

"He was brought to the hospital because he got involved when he tried to prevent those kids from beating up this one kid right next to our stand and they turned on him and beat him up too.

"When he walked back to the stand after trying to stop the fight, they threw a bottle at his head, and that's when he fell to the ground and injured his lip before they turned on him and beat him up."

According to Mr. Nouata, he was contacted that Saturday night on the incident and his employee being injured. By the time he got to the taxi stand, all those who assaulted the duo fled the scene. He said his taxi driver and the unidentified male who was injured were taken to the hospital, though the taxi driver was discharged on the same night after emergency scans cleared him of any serious injury.

He said he has instructed his staff member to stay home and return to work on Friday this week when he will lodge a complaint with the Police on the assault. 

Asked whether they were able to identify the perpetrators who assaulted the taxi driver last Saturday night, Mr. Nouata said most of them were street vendors who sell leis at the nightclubs in Sogi.

He added that his phone, wallet and other important documents he had on him that night were also stolen on the night of the assault.

Police Commissioner, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo on Tuesday appealed to those with information on the assault to step forward to assist the Police with their investigations. He said the video footage which went viral on social media was only brought to their attention on Monday night. 

"The thing is, some officers said they only saw the video last night [Monday night] before you [Samoa Observer] sent me the video [on Tuesday] so we've just started looking into it and we are using this opportunity to urge those who have any information on this to come forward," said Auapaau.

"We haven't found any useful information yet but we will conduct our usual investigations like going to the hospital and the taxi stand in Sogi for questioning and collecting information, especially the victims, we urge them to come forward to provide us with any information that might help us track down those that were involved in the fight."

The viral video shared on social media platforms attracted over 1,000 viewers and 600-plus comments which predominantly condemned the cruelty of the perpetrators. The video showed more than six males and one female being involved in the beating of the taxi driver and the unidentified male while the other women looked on.