China hospital attack leaves two dead, 21 wounded

Beijing   -   Two people were dead and 21 wounded after a man went on a stabbing spree at a hospital in southwest China on Tuesday, local officials said. “A knife attack occurred at the Chengnan Hospital in Zhenxiong County, which resulted in two deaths and 21 injuries,” a statement on the county’s official WeChat account said. The wounded were being treated in hospital, they added. Local police said they caught the suspect on Tuesday afternoon, describing him as a 40-year-old man from a nearby village. Images published by the state-run news site The Paper appeared to show a man pointing a knife at another man wielding a stick in a hospital lobby, as well as police officers arriving at the scene. Mass violent crime is rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of stabbings in recent years. Last August in Yunnan, two people died and seven others were wounded after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife. The month before, six people were killed and one wounded in a kindergarten stabbing in southern China’s Guangdong province. And in August 2022, three people were killed and six wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southeast China’s Jiangxi province.

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