Witnesses to an accident involving an elderly woman struck by a bus in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province were slammed online for not rushing to her aid and instead standing around taking pictures with their mobile phones.

Many witnessed the woman struck by a No.26 city bus near the Nanshaomen Shizi stop while crossing the street with her grandson around midday on July 8, but not one offered to help, reports the West China Daily.

“Not a single onlooker called for an ambulance before I did,” said traffic policeman Li Zhan, who was first to respond at the scene, adding that many witnesses were taking photos of the accident with their phones.

Li said that the old woman kept begging him to “take good care of her grandson” from under the bus.

Paramedics rushed the woman to the No.451 Hospital of People’s Liberation Army for treatment along with family members. An investigation into the accident is still under way.

While netizens condemned those taking photos for lack of compassion, others commented that the incident reflects a reluctance among Chinese to help injured strangers for fear of being sued.

Discussions over China’s lack of ‘good Samaritans’ sparked in 2006 when a Nanjing court forced 26-year-old student Peng Yu to pay 40 percent of all medical expenses after helping up a fallen 65-year-old woman named Xu Shoulan and escorting her to the hospital.