Attacker stabs 10 children outside Chinese school

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING

A knife-wielding man injured 10 children outside a primary school Monday in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan before apparently killing himself, according to police.

The state-run China Daily reported that bloodstains and students’ belongings were scattered at the site where the children had been leaving for home during lunchtime in the provincial capital of Haikou.

It cited the local hinews.cn news portal as saying that police – who found the 45-year-old suspect dead in a nearby street – had cordoned off the area at the gate of Yangfan Primary School.

A witness said the suspect had primarily attacked the heads of students – two of who were reportedly in a critical condition – and then fled.

An unnamed mother whose child was among those sent to nearby hospitals said the wound on her daughter’s head was very deep, resulting in doctors instructing further examination.

The mother of the one of the six injured boys said she had searched for her son at school when he did not arrive home, only to learn he had been wounded in the attack.

"I thought my son was safe at school. I never thought such a thing could happen," the Daily quoted her saying.

China has experienced a number of knife attacks in recent years.

In March last year, two knife-wielding assailants wounded nine civilians and one policeman at a railway station in southern Guangzhou in the second knife attack at a train station in the city within a year.

In March 2014, more than five people were killed in a knife attack at a market in the south-central city of Changsha in an apparent dispute between vendors.