A man in southern China stabbed to death four children on their way to school on Friday, state media reported.
The attack, in rural Lingshan County in the southwestern province of Guangxi, happened shortly after 6am as the children were walking to the Gupu primary school in Pingshan Township, Xinhua news agency reported. It was the latest in a series of knife or axe attacks on schoolchildren that have alarmed parents in China and prompted national soul-searching about the causes of the violence.
The Beijing News, citing witnesses, said the suspect, Shi Xianting (石現廷), 56, was driving a motorized pedicab as he chased down the children with a fruit knife.
Photo: EPA
One child was killed near the school gate and two more nearby, while an eight-year-old boy later died at a hospital. The body of one of the victims was found decapitated in the back of the man’s pedicab, which had been abandoned about 6km away.
The police were searching for the suspect.
Earlier this month, a man upset that he could not enroll his children in school stabbed eight students and a teacher, killing three people, at a primary school in the eastern province of Hubei.
Photo: Reuters
Also on Friday, six schoolchildren died and 25 were injured in a stampede at a primary school in the southernwestern city of Kunming, authorities said.
It was not clear what caused the stampede among the first and second-grade students of Mingtong Elementary School, the city’s propaganda office said on its microblog.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (劉延東) demanded an investigation into the cause and that the report be released to the public, Kunming officials said.
The city government said 25 injured students were taken to the hospital, and those with minor injuries were released.
Earlier this month, a man killed three pupils on the first day of school before jumping to his death in Hubei Province.
Following the stampede, Kunming officials demanded that all schools in the city conduct thorough security checks to remove any safety hazards.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was