Xinhua, April 29: A Knife-Wielding man allegedly attacked 28 children at a kindergarten in eastern China today in the third such attack in a month, police say.
The latest attack occurred in the city of Taixing in Jiangsu province, according to the Xinhua news agency.
According to Xinhua, 28 children and three adults were injured in the attack. Most of the injured children were just four years old with five of them reportedly now critically ill in hospital.
Various internet media sources said there had been reports of up to four deaths in the morning attack, but an official with the Taixing city government told Agence France Presse news agency it had so far received no such reports.
“The gate-keeper, teachers, and students were attacked. The injured are receiving treatment in hospital. We don’t have any reports of deaths yet,” said the official, who declined to be named.
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Police have detained a 47-year-old man who is alleged to have carried out the attack at about 9:30 am local time, said a Taixing Police spokesman.
The attack comes one day after a teacher who had been on sick leave since 2006 for mental problems injured at least 15 students and a teacher in a knife attack at a school in southern China, according to state media.
That same day authorities in neighbouring Fujian province executed a man for a similar attack last month, in which eight school pupils were killed.
Zheng Minsheng was put to death over the March 23 stabbing frenzy that came in a fit of rage after he was jilted by a lover, Xinhua reported.
Although crime rates in China have risen steadily since the country began its economic transformation three decades ago, such large-scale violent attacks remain rare.
Extremely tight gun laws also prevent death tolls from reaching the levels seen occasionally in shooting attacks in some Western countries.
—Agencies