A man armed with an axe attacked children and parents in a city street in central China today, killing four people and wounding two.
Villagers identified the perpetrator of the attack on the outskirts of the city of Gongyi as a local farmer with a history of mental illness, said a city government spokesman.
The spokesman said one young girl was among those killed while another was seriously wounded when the alleged assailant, Wang Hongbin, began attacking people on a main street in Gongyi’s Shecun township at about 8.40am. The spokesman said Wang was detained but gave no other details.
Gongyi is in heavily-populated Henan province in China’s grain belt.
China has experienced a string of rampage attacks at schools, retirement homes and on city streets that have left dozens dead and scores more wounded since the start of 2010.
Last month a worker slashed children with a knife at a daycare centre for migrant workers in eastern China, wounding eight of them. Reports said the female attacker had suffered a “psychotic episode”.
In one of the worst attacks, seven children and two adults were killed at a kindergarten in northern China in May last year.
While seemingly unrelated, the attacks have prompted calls for more attention to serious mental illnesses and concern over rising stress levels in Chinese society. Assailants in most attacks were either mentally unstable, bore grudges against their victiChinese courts told to ease back on issuing death penaltyms, or were angry over personal failures.
Schools around China boosted security last year, with more guards on hand at entrances.
PA