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Attacker hurts 20 children with hammer at Beijing school

Attacker hurts 20 children with hammer at Beijing school

BEIJING, (DNA) – A hammer-wielding man wounded 20 children in an attack at an elementary school in Beijing on Tuesday with three suffering serious injuries, local authorities said.

A male suspect was brought “under control” and the wounded pupils were admitted to hospital, the Xicheng district government said.

Surnamed Jia, the 49-year-old assailant was a contractor hired by the school for daily maintenance work. His contract was scheduled to terminate at the end of January, stated the district government on its official Twitter-like Weibo account in a post that has since been deleted.

Though the school was discussing another job posting for Jia, he used a hammer and attacked students to “vent his resentment”, they said.

Police have taken “compulsory measures” against the suspect.

Beijing police did not immediately respond.

Violent attacks targeting schoolchildren are not uncommon in China, which has seen a slew of deadly incidents over the past few years, usually involving knives.

In April last year, a 28-year-old man killed nine middle-school students as they were returning home in one of the country’s deadliest knife attacks in recent years.

The killer, who said he had been bullied when he attended the school in northern China’s Shaanxi province, was executed in September.

Later in 2018, a knife-wielding woman injured 14 children at a kindergarten in Sichuan province.

The 39-year-old assailant slashed students while they were returning to the classroom after morning exercises.

In January 2017, a farmer armed with a kitchen knife wounded 12 children at a kindergarten in southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He was executed on Friday.

Such incidents have forced authorities to increase security around schools and led to calls for more research into the root causes of such acts.

 

 






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