BEIJING (AFP) ― A knife-wielding man stabbed eight children and a teacher in a rampage at a Chinese primary school Monday, leaving at least three of them dead, reports said, in the country’s latest attack against youngsters.
The man, surnamed Chen, killed himself by jumping from a building following the carnage at a school in Shiyan, in the central province of Hubei, according to the official news agency Xinhua, which said three of the victims had died.
He carried out the attack “because he couldn’t enroll his child” at the school, local broadcaster Shiyan Television said on its verified account on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, without giving details.
It said six children had been killed, as did a local newspaper.
A local police official declined to provide information, saying: “I am not clear, the police bureau officials are at that school investigating.”
China has seen several violent attacks against children in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 17 people ― 15 of them children ― and wounded more than 80.
Last March, a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China’s commercial hub Shanghai.
Earlier this summer, police in Qianjing ― which is near Shiyan ― killed a suspect who was attempting to take over a primary school, state media said.