A suspect has been arrested after six people were killed and one wounded in a stabbing at a kindergarten in China’s Guangdong province on Monday (Jul 10).
“The victims include one teacher, two parents and three students … and one suspect has been arrested,” said a spokesperson for the city government.
The spokesperson did not offer details about the identities or ages of the victims, nor the weapon used in the attack.
The attack in Lianjiang county happened at about 7.40am and the police arrested a 25-year-old man surnamed Wu at about 8am. The local police called it a case of “intentional assault”.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the attack.
The incident was the top-trending discussion on Weibo, a social media platform, with 130 million views as of 12.20pm.
SPATE OF ATTACKS
While guns are strictly controlled, China has been struggling with a spate of mass stabbings.
Fatal attacks targeting students and schools have occurred nationwide in recent years.
The attacks have forced authorities to step up security and prompted calls for more research into the root causes of such violent acts.
Last August, three people were killed and six others wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southeast China’s Jiangxi province.
In April 2021, two children were killed and 16 others wounded when a knife-wielding man entered a kindergarten in southern China.
In June of the previous year, 37 students and two adults were wounded by a knife-wielding attacker at a primary school in southern China.
And in November 2019, a man climbed a kindergarten wall in southwest Yunnan province and sprayed people with a corrosive liquid, wounding 51 of them, mostly students.
The same year, eight schoolchildren died and two others were wounded in a “school-related criminal case” in the central Hubei province, with a 40-year-old man arrested.
And in April 2018, a 28-year-old man killed nine college students and injured 12 others outside their school in the northern province of Shaanxi.
The attacker later said he acted out of revenge after being harassed by a student at the same school.