Man stabs 28 children at China kindergarten

A middle-aged man stabbed 28 children and three adults Thursday at a kindergarten in eastern China's Jiangsu province, leaving at least five people in critical condition, the China News Service reported.

Beijing (dpa) April 29, 2010 -- A middle-aged man stabbed 28 children and three adults Thursday at a kindergarten in eastern China's Jiangsu province, leaving at least five people in critical condition, state media said.

Five children were seriously injured, including two in critical condition, after the attacker forced his way into a classroom Thursday morning at the Central Kindergarten in Taixing city, the city government said.

A security guard, who was injured while trying to stop the attacker from entering the kindergarten, and two class teachers were also in critical condition, the semi-official China News Service reported.

Police detained the 47-year-old attacker, identified as unemployed Xu Yuyuan, but gave no possible motive.

The injured children were all aged four to five years old, reports said.

Xu's attack with a 20-centimetre knife ended when five civilians and police officers overpowered him, shopkeeper Hu Yafeng, who was one of the five, told the official Xinhua news agency.

"Xu looked normal this morning. He talked with people in a natural manner," the agency quoted an unidentified tenant of Xu's as saying, adding that the man had spoken to Xu "hours before the attack."

Xu had worked for a local insurance company until 2001 and had since taken part in "illegal pyramid sales," it said.

China News Service quoted officials as saying no one had died in the attack after earlier citing unconfirmed reports by local websites that four children had been killed.

The attack was the second in two days at a Chinese school.

An art teacher reportedly on sick leave for mental health problems stabbed 16 pupils and one teacher Wednesday afternoon at a primary school in the southern city of Leizhou in Guangdong province.

Five children attacked in Leizhou were in critical condition in hospital, reports said.

Also on Wednesday, a former doctor convicted of stabbing to death eight primary-school children last month in south-eastern China's Fujian province was executed by firing squad.

In a commentary Thursday, the official China Daily said the attacks on children in Fujian and Leizhou had "again raised concerns over school safety."

The Education Ministry had ordered all kindergartens, primary and high schools to improve security earlier this month, the newspaper said.

It said the ministry had told schools to "integrate safety awareness into the curriculum," teach children self-protection, hire more security guards, instal more security facilities and ensure that young students were escorted home.

Copyright: dpa