Restaurant owner says she and her husband were attacked on their terrace in Montreal's Village

The owner of a dumpling restaurant in Montreal’s Village neighbourhood says she and her husband were attacked steps from their storefront earlier this week.

Now sharing their story publicly, they’re joining a growing number of residents and merchants who feel the Village has become unsafe in recent years.

"I was in the kitchen and I saw two guys on the terrace,” said Emily Yu, owner of Yamato Dumpling on Sainte-Catherine St., where the incident took place on Wednesday, at around 1:30 p.m.

She says they appeared to be intoxicated, and that her husband decided to ask them to leave.

When he approached them, she said, one of them got violent. Yu says she called the police before her husband was dragged from the door down onto the pavement, where he was “punched on the face several times.”

When Yu tried to intervene, she says she was attacked, too.

"He kicked my feet and then I fell down, and he smashed me as well," she said.

"He threw her to the ground, on the cement, and he started to kick her," said Jean Louis, who says he was sitting at another terrace opposite Yamato Dumpling during the conflict.

“I said to the boys, ‘We’ve got to do something,’” he recounted. “You know, everybody is like a family here. We know each other, and we have fun, you know, but when you see an incident like that, it's not good."

Louis and his group intervened, and eventually the man took off. Police say he returned to the scene 10 minutes later, where he was arrested.

It’s not the first story of violence on the strip. In June, a man was shot dead in a rooming house near Beaudry St. – the 11th homicide in Montreal since the year began. Shortly after the shooting, the city said it would beef up police presence in the area in response to mounting calls for security in the neighbourhood many say is becoming more dangerous.

"People are on drugs. They're on crack,” said Guy Sainte-Marie, who spoke to CTV during a visit to the neighbourhood on Saturday. ”One guy here got $425 taken from his pocket, (and) you know, beaten up."

"I don't feel safe in the village anymore,” said Yves Dube, another resident. “It used to be a nice place, but it's not safe anymore."

Business owners say they routinely have to clean up garbage and used syringes left overnight, and some say they’re planning to close their terraces, including Yu.

Yu and the residents CTV News spoke with Saturday say they’ve noticed an increase in police presence since the city said it would bump up patrols.