Student has hand chopped off in latest China attack

THIRTEEN vocational students were hurt in China yesterday – including one who had a hand chopped off – when they were attacked by youths with cleavers, after a string of violent school assaults.

The incident just after midnight on the southern island of Hainan comes after a series of savage attacks at schools and kindergartens around the country that have left 17 dead, including 15 young children.

At about midnight, students at the Hainan Technology and Vocational Institute in the city of Haikou got into an argument with the youths as the students held a barbecue near their school, the Xinhua state news agency said.

Four students were injured in the initial clash but a group of youths stormed into the school’s dormitory two hours later, attacking nine more, it said.

According to the China News Service, one student had a hand cut off during the clash, while the others were slightly injured.

Two students remained in hospital with wounds that were not life-threatening, the reports said.

There was a history of bad blood and altercations involving students at the institute and the local youths, the report added.

Vocational education is generally for students in their late teens or early 20s.

A recent wave of violence has caused widespread fears over public safety in China with more than 80 injured in five previous attacks at schools and kindergartens over the past two months.

All the previous attacks were carried out by lone assailants, two of whom committed suicide.

A third, a former doctor who killed eight children on March 23, has been tried and executed, while another attacker was sentenced to death on Saturday.

In response to the violence, police and schools have been ordered to beef up security in and around campuses amid fears of more copycat attacks by disturbed or disgruntled assailants.

Last week, Premier Wen Jiabao said long-standing social concerns were partially to blame for the attacks.

“We need to resolve the deep-seated causes that have resulted in these problems,” Wen said in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television.

“This includes handling social contradictions, resolving disputes and strengthening mediation at the grassroots level.”

In a separate incident this week, a man who had been drinking alcohol barged into a primary school classroom with a knife and a home-made gun in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, China National Radio reported yesterday.

The man was wrestled to the ground by a teacher and detained by police in the incident on Monday, it said. It made no mention of any students being hurt.

The man had served a previous prison term, said the report, which did not say what crime he had committed or give his name.