BEIJING – A man armed with a knife killed five people and wounded 15 others in a city in eastern China yesterday, reported state media.
The afternoon attack occurred in the streets of Anqing, Anhui province, 430km west of Shanghai, said state television CCTV.
The suspect has been arrested, and an investigation is under way to determine the circumstances of the assault that unfolded in a pedestrian and shopping street, said the Anqing Public Security Bureau in a statement released on the Weibo social network.
Knife attacks are not uncommon in China, which heavily restricts access to firearms.
In April, a man with a knife killed two children and injured 16 others at a nursery school in the country’s south.
In 2018, a man who stabbed nine children to death and wounded another 11 in northern China was sentenced to death.
Violent crime has risen in the country in recent decades as its economic boom creates a bigger gap between the rich and poor.
Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders. – AFP, June 6, 2021