Knife attack in China primary school wounds at least 39

A knife-wielding attacker wounded at least 37 students and two adults at a primary school in southern China as local media identified a security guard as the perpetrator.

All the victims, including teaching staff, were sent to hospitals but were not in a life-threatening condition, said authorities in Cangwu County in the Guangxi region.

• Several children killed in attack on primary school in China
• Knife attacker kills nine children, wounds 10 in China

• Several injured in knife attack at China train station

The incident at the Wangfu Central Primary School happened at 8:30am (00:30 GMT) when children would normally arrive for class. The attacker, reportedly aged 50, was “under control”, the Cangwu government said.

“Thirty-seven students suffered mild injuries and two adults suffered more severe injuries. All of them were sent to a hospital for treatment, and none of their lives are in danger,” it said.

According to local reports, eight ambulances were sent to the scene and all of the wounded were treated at Wuzhou city. 

State broadcaster CCTV said 40 were injured, three seriously, including the head of the school, another security guard, and a student. 

Recent attacks 

Schools in the region only reopened in May after being closed for months because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Several schools in China have been hit by attacks in recent years, forcing authorities to step up security amid calls for more research into the root causes of such acts.

In November 2019, a man climbed a kindergarten wall in southwest Yunnan province and sprayed people with a corrosive liquid, wounding 51 of them, mostly students.

Last September, eight schoolchildren died and two others were wounded in a “school-related criminal case” in the central Hubei province, with a 40-year-old man arrested.

A knife-wielding man killed two people and wounded two others at a primary school in central Hunan province in April last year.

In April 2018, a man killed nine middle school students as they were returning home, in one of the deadliest knife attacks seen in China.

A homemade explosive killed eight people and injured dozens outside a kindergarten in Jiangsu province in June 2017.