Knife rampage at kindergarten leaves three children, two parents and a teacher dead in China
- At least six people are dead after a violent rampage at a kindergarten in China
- The suspect, a 25-year-old male surnamed Wu, has been taken into custody
Six people were killed and one wounded in an attack at a kindergarten in southern China’s Guangdong province on Monday, a spokeswoman for the city government said.
‘The victims include one teacher, two parents and three students,’ she said, in the rampage which unfolded around 7:40am (2340 GMT on Sunday).
She did not offer details about the identities or ages of the victims, nor the weapon used in the attack in the city of Lianjiang, but reports suggested the victims were stabbed.
The suspect, a 25-year-old male surnamed Wu, was arrested according to a local police statement and the city spokeswoman.
It comes amid a wave of violent crime in China, where the economy has grown in recent decades and the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly.
Videos shot by passersby claiming to show the crime scene were removed from video-sharing platform Douyin and Twitter-like Weibo, with authorities attempting to prevent citizens from sharing the details of the attack.
A police cordon is placed in the aftermath of a stabbing attack at a kindergarten in Lianjiang county, Guangdong province, China in this still image obtained from social media video released July 10, 2023
A man and what appears to be his daughter ride a scooter nearby a victim of the attack
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.
