ISTANBUL

Tokyo on Thursday asked China to ensure safety of Japanese citizens in the country after a boy was stabbed to death in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Tokyo “has been and will continue to strongly urge China to share information related to the attack and ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in China,” Japanese government’s top spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo.

A 44-year-old man allegedly stabbed a 10-year-old Japanese student on Wednesday near a school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, home to nearly 3,600 Japanese nationals, according to Tokyo-based Kyodo News.

Shenzhen municipal government, in Guangdong province, regretted the incident.

The boy, who was accompanied by his mother at the time of attack, died of wounds early Thursday.

“We are deeply saddened,” by the death of the boy, said Hayashi.

The attacker’s intentions are not known yet.

In recent months, China saw many knife-attacking incidents.

Earlier, a Chinese woman died while trying to save a Japanese mother and her child in June when they came under a knife attack in Suzhou near Shanghai.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called the incident a “despicable” act and demanded Beijing “make every possible effort to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals.”