Kindergarten Mass Stabbing Leaves 2 Dead in China

Two people died and 16 were injured in a shocking kindergarten mass stabbing in southwestern China.

A knife-wielding man attacked children and teachers at the kindergarten in Beiliu city in the southwestern region of Guangxi on Wednesday afternoon, according to state media.

Videos shared by Chinese media showed children covered in blood lying on the playground. A man was seen taken away by officers in police uniforms. 

Reached by VICE World News on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Beiliu government declined to say if the dead were children or adults. Chinese news outlet Thepaper.cn reported on Wednesday that the injured included 16 children and two teachers, and two of the children suffered severe injuries.

Police arrested an unidentified man but the motive was unclear, the report said. Several trending hashtags related to the attack have been censored on the microblogging site Weibo by Thursday.

State media have posted videos showing residents in Beiliu forming long lines as they waited to donate blood for the victims on Wednesday. 

While firearms are strictly controlled in China, a number of school knife attacks have taken place across the country in recent years, prompting public outrage and widespread concerns about children’s safety.

In January, a man stabbed seven people and took a boy hostage outside a secondary school in the southwestern province of Yunnan. The man was shot dead by police at the scene.

And in June last year, 39 people, including children and staff members, were injured in a knife attack at a primary school in Guangxi. A court sentenced the suspect to death in September, saying he committed the crime to “vent personal grievances.”

Some experts have said that similar to school shooters in the United States, the Chinese attackers targeted students because they believed their deaths would cause the most disruption.

The latest mass stabbing in Guangxi took place a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping left the region following a two-day visit.

After the attack, the Ministry of Education ordered a blanketed security inspection at all kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools in the country, according to an online statement.

The ministry said police officers and vehicles must be present outside school gates at key times of the day, such as a school’s opening and closing hours. It said local authorities should also keep an eye on school disputes to prevent such crimes.

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