28 Chinese pupils hurt in new knife attack

A KNIFE-wielding maniac has attacked a class of Chinese four-year-olds, injuring 28 children in the country’s third such rampage this month.

Xu Yuyuan, a jobless 47-year-old, burst into the Zhongxin school in the city of Taixing early on Wednesday, waving an eight-inch knife and stabbing a security guard who tried to stop him.

Five children were critically injured and two teachers were also hurt.

The motive for the attack was unknown.

China has seen a spate of school attacks in recent years, most blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness. The attacks have appalled the nation and prompted calls for improved security.

It is often unclear why schools are targeted, but one sociologist said the assaults may happen in clusters, with one assailant triggering copycat attackers.

On Wednesday a man broke into a primary school in Guangdong province’s Leizhou city in southern China and stabbed 15 pupils and a teacher. That came on the same day as another was executed for stabbing to death eight children.

Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said violent attacks often happen in clusters.

“It’s like suicide, which is another type of mental health problem that can spread in a community,” he said. “Normally, with these kind of violent events we hope the media won’t blow them up too much. Because that tends to make it spread.”

In Wednesday’s attack, when a teacher stabbed children in their heads, backs and arms, the suspect suffered from mental illness and had been on sick leave since February 2006. He is now in police custody. None of the victims in that case had life-threatening wounds.

Zheng Minsheng, 42, was executed in neighbouring Fujian province for the murders of eight children outside their school as they waited for classes to start.