China has set up a special task force focused on beefing up school security, state media said yesterday, after three violent campus attacks against young children in as many days this week.
Chinese Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping (郝平) said emergency management was a “heavy task,” as police patrols near school grounds were bolstered to protect the country’s 270 million students, Xinhua news agency reported.
Hao said 22 university and government experts would investigate “public incidents” in the education system and explore new ways to ensure “scientific emergency management” in the nation’s schools. His remarks came after a farmer attacked children with a hammer at a primary school in eastern China on Friday before setting himself on fire — the latest in a wave of assaults that has left eight children dead and 50 people injured.
The farmer’s rampage in Shandong Province left five children and a teacher hurt but in stable condition, Xinhua said.
On Thursday, a jobless man apparently angry over a series of personal and professional setbacks slashed 29 children and three adults with a knife used to slaughter pigs in an attack at a kindergarten in the eastern city of Taixing.
Video footage posted online after the attack shows people said to be parents of the students marching on a street in protest and demanding to see their injured children.
The footage could not be independently verified and a spokesman for the Taixing government declined to comment on the apparent demonstration yesterday.
On Wednesday, a 33-year-old teacher on sick leave due to mental problems injured 15 students and a teacher in a knife attack at a primary school in Guangdong Province.
The assailants in both the Taixing and Guangdong attacks were arrested and all victims were said to be out of life-threatening condition.
Also on Wednesday, authorities in Fujian province in the southeast executed a former doctor for stabbing to death eight children and injuring five others on March 23 in a fit of rage after he split with his girlfriend.
The attacks underscore how China — which has enjoyed lower violent crime rates than the West — faces a growing public safety threat from disgruntled individuals amid rising mental illness rates and looser social controls.
The education ministry on Friday issued an “urgent” notice calling on schools to strengthen security, tighten restrictions on campus visitors and devise emergency plans.
“We must establish a safety first, prevention first concept,” the ministry said in the notice, posted on its Web site.
Minister of Education Yuan Guiren (袁貴仁) said students should be given a “basic knowledge of self-defense” and security cameras installed at school entrances and other “important areas” to prevent further attacks, the Beijing News said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS