Police have apprehended a security guard suspected of carrying out Thursday morning’s attack
Two people have been seriously injured after an armed man went on a stabbing spree at a public school in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Thirty-nine students and staff at the Wangfu Central Elementary School in Wangfu Town were attacked by a knife-wielding man at around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, according to an announcement from the local government. Two adults were seriously injured in the incident.
In an earlier statement, authorities identified the attacker as a 50-year-old security guard who worked at the school, surnamed Li. The local government initially said the suspect had attacked about 40 students and staff members, seriously injuring the school’s principal, along with another security guard and a student.
All of the injured were sent to local hospitals following the incident. Video footage shared by state media outlets shows a busy scene outside one hospital, with adults carrying children wrapped in bandages.
Schools across China have resumed classes just in the last couple of weeks, following months of online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with each provincial-level administrative region setting its own reopening schedule.
Last year, police apprehended a repairman at a Beijing primary school after he attacked 20 students with a hammer during a break between classes. He said later that he had wanted to “vent his discontent” after his work contract, which was due to expire, was not renewed by the company that had hired him to work at the school.
Editor: Bibek Bhandari.
(Header image: An ambulance at the scene of the school stabbing incident in Wangfu Town, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 4, 2020. CNS)
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