Chinese nursery poisoner is executed

A kindergarten owner who sickened 70 children by mixing rat poison into salt at a rival school’s kitchen was executed in southern China today.

It was the second execution announced in the past three months in a series of Chinese poisoning cases blamed on business disputes.

After initially suppressing details of the cases, authorities have publicised the penalties in hopes of reassuring an anxious public that they are taking resolute action.

Huang Hu, 29, was executed in Zhanjiang, a city in Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.

Huang owned a failing kindergarten in the nearby city of Wuchuang and blamed a nearby school. He crept into its kitchen and put poison in salt that was used to make corn porridge.

Students and teachers who ate the tainted food suffered spasms and vomiting. Seventy children and two teachers were admitted to hospital.

The report didn’t say how Huang was put to death. China used to carry out most executions with a bullet to the back of the head or neck, but the use of lethal injection is spreading.

China is in the midst of a marathon anti-crime crackdown that has brought a wave of heightened penalties including death sentences for even non-violent offences such as tax evasion.