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21-05-2024
BEIJING: Two people have been killed and dozens others injured in a knife attack at a primary school in China’s southern Jiangxi province, police said.
It was not immediately clear if children were among the casualties.
The attack took place at about midday (04:00 GMT) at the school in Guixi city.
Police said it was carried out by a 45-year-old woman, who used a fruit knife. She has since been controlled, police added in a statement on social media.
Parents at the school have described their shock and fear at hearing the attack had taken place.
“I received the news at noon, and I was very shocked,” one told media, speaking on the condition of anonymity, “My child is in the fifth grade and very young and has safely arrived home, but the school has not informed us of anything and has kept everything hidden. I am going back to comfort my child and to find out what exactly happened.”
Another father who also did not want to be named said; “Of course, we are scared. It’s not just the children; even we adults are very frightened.
“The class teachers handled it quite well; they immediately posted photos of the children in the parent group, saying the children were safe and that they had already locked the doors, asking parents to come and pick them up. They mentioned that the details of the case are still under investigation.”
China has seen a spate of knife attacks in recent months. In May, a man stabbed dead two people and wounded 21 others at a hospital in the southern province of Yunnan.
In August last year, two people were killed and seven others injured after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife in a residential district in also Yunnan.
In July, 2023, six people, including three children, were killed in a stabbing at a kindergarten in the south-eastern province of Guangdong.
Police said they have arrested a 25-year-old man with the surname Wu in Lianjiang.
The other victims are a teacher and two parents, media reported, quoting a local official. One person is also injured.
Police have called this a case of “intentional assault” but not elaborated on a possible motive.
The attack happened on Monday at 07:40 local time,just as parents were dropping their children off for summer classes. The man was arrested at 08:00.
A storeowner who works near the kindergarten told media the surrounding area had been sealed off.
Lianjiang has a population of about 1.87 million.
As videos of the attack spread across Chinese social media, they sparked outrage and shock.
The stabbings also fit in to a disturbingly familiar pattern. Firearms are banned in China but the country has seen a spate of knife attacks in recent years, although there was also one incident where the attacker used a chemical spray to injure a classroom of 50 children.
On 7th May, 2024, during another knife attack at a hospital in south-west China has left at least two people dead and 21 others injured.
The stabbing happened at 11:37 local time (03:37 GMT) at Zhenxiong People’s Hospital in Yunnan province, the police said.
Images published by China’s The Paper showed a man in black, wielding knives in both hands, inside the hospital.
Police said the suspect is from Poji town in Zhenxiong. It was unclear if he has been arrested. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
