BEIJING: A knife-wielding man stabbed to death four primary schoolchildren in southern China yesterday, the latest in a series of such attacks in recent years.
Three of the children died at the scene and the other was later pronounced dead in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local authorities.
The stabbings occurred early in the morning as the children were on their way to school in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the report said.
It did not specify the children’s ages or genders. The Beijing News daily, however, reported that none of the children were older than 12.
Police joined by members of the public were searching mountainous woodland for the suspected assailant, who police identified as a 56-year-old local man surnamed Shi, Xinhua said.
The report added that more than 300 people were participating in the manhunt along with sniffer dogs in an area about seven kilometres from the site of the stabbings.
On its verified account on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo, Chinese state TV described Shi as slightly heavyset and reported that he stabbed the children while riding a motorised trishaw.
Local police publicised the number plate of the trishaw and offered a reward of 20,000 yuan for information leading to the man’s capture, it added.
Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation’s economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly.
Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and support systems wither. AFP
