Kids again targeted for mass attacks
Source: Xinhua |
May 1, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IN yet another disturbing attack on schoolchildren, five kindergartners and a teacher were injured yesterday when a man assaulted them with a hammer before killing himself at an east China school.
Wang Yonglai, 45, wielded a home-made hammer at five children and a teacher at 7:40am at Shangzhuang Primary School in Weifang City, Shandong Province, said a spokesman for the city government.
He then set himself on fire and died, the spokesman said.
It was the third such attack at a school in China in the last three days.
Four boys -- ages 4, 6 and 7 -- and one six-year-old girl suffered head injuries in the attack. They were all rushed to Fangzi District People's Hospital. Two were later transferred to Weifang Municipal People's Hospital.
All the children were in stable condition, the spokesman said.
Wang soaked himself in gasoline and grabbed two injured four-year-old boys but the female teacher, Guo Feng, snatched the kids away from him just before he set himself on fire, said the school's head teacher, Wang Fatang.
The teacher injured her foot while trying to stop the attacker.
The attacker was a farmer from Shangzhuang Village in Weifang, police said.
Loses house
Wang's wife, Wang Xiulian, said the family had spent all their savings, 110,000 yuan (US$16,100), building a house that was about to be torn down because it had been erected on farmland, which is illegal in China.
Wang's wife said after local police told them yesterday the house would be demolished, her husband rushed out on his motorcycle.
The school has 390 pupils and 52 kindergarten children.
Police are still investigating the attack, the third in as many days.
On Wednesday, 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in the southern province of Guangdong were attacked by a man with a knife, identified as a 33-year-old former teacher who had been on sick leave with mental problems.
On Thursday, 29 children and three adults were injured by a man armed with knife at the Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing City, in eastern Jiangsu Province.
The man -- married, the owner of eight apartments in a downtown building and reasonably well off -- told police yesterday that he committed the attack out of anger stemming from a series of business and personal humiliations.
Security tightens
The Zhongxin Kindergarten remained closed yesterday. A crowd of 100 onlookers still surrounded the front door of the public school.
People in the crowd said witnesses on Thursday saw the attacker first attempt to enter another kindergarten nearby, but failed because it had a controlled-access device.
Many Chinese cities have beefed up campus security after the string of attacks on children.
Si Jun, a police officer in Gulou Police Station in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province's capital, said yesterday the station had set up a "campus security team" of 70 security guards armed with batons and pepper spray.
The team under the police station will carry out security patrols in and around schools and kindergartens in Nanjing starting today.
The Public Security Bureau in Beijing's Xicheng District has rushed to send 300 police "forks," long poles attached to semi-circular prongs used to contain assailants, to local schools and kindergartens.
A bureau spokesman said the weapons could arm civilian security forces in schools and improve their self-defense abilities.
The bureau had also sent policemen to teach security staff and teachers how to use the weapon.
Wang Yonglai, 45, wielded a home-made hammer at five children and a teacher at 7:40am at Shangzhuang Primary School in Weifang City, Shandong Province, said a spokesman for the city government.
He then set himself on fire and died, the spokesman said.
It was the third such attack at a school in China in the last three days.
Four boys -- ages 4, 6 and 7 -- and one six-year-old girl suffered head injuries in the attack. They were all rushed to Fangzi District People's Hospital. Two were later transferred to Weifang Municipal People's Hospital.
All the children were in stable condition, the spokesman said.
Wang soaked himself in gasoline and grabbed two injured four-year-old boys but the female teacher, Guo Feng, snatched the kids away from him just before he set himself on fire, said the school's head teacher, Wang Fatang.
The teacher injured her foot while trying to stop the attacker.
The attacker was a farmer from Shangzhuang Village in Weifang, police said.
Loses house
Wang's wife, Wang Xiulian, said the family had spent all their savings, 110,000 yuan (US$16,100), building a house that was about to be torn down because it had been erected on farmland, which is illegal in China.
Wang's wife said after local police told them yesterday the house would be demolished, her husband rushed out on his motorcycle.
The school has 390 pupils and 52 kindergarten children.
Police are still investigating the attack, the third in as many days.
On Wednesday, 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in the southern province of Guangdong were attacked by a man with a knife, identified as a 33-year-old former teacher who had been on sick leave with mental problems.
On Thursday, 29 children and three adults were injured by a man armed with knife at the Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing City, in eastern Jiangsu Province.
The man -- married, the owner of eight apartments in a downtown building and reasonably well off -- told police yesterday that he committed the attack out of anger stemming from a series of business and personal humiliations.
Security tightens
The Zhongxin Kindergarten remained closed yesterday. A crowd of 100 onlookers still surrounded the front door of the public school.
People in the crowd said witnesses on Thursday saw the attacker first attempt to enter another kindergarten nearby, but failed because it had a controlled-access device.
Many Chinese cities have beefed up campus security after the string of attacks on children.
Si Jun, a police officer in Gulou Police Station in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province's capital, said yesterday the station had set up a "campus security team" of 70 security guards armed with batons and pepper spray.
The team under the police station will carry out security patrols in and around schools and kindergartens in Nanjing starting today.
The Public Security Bureau in Beijing's Xicheng District has rushed to send 300 police "forks," long poles attached to semi-circular prongs used to contain assailants, to local schools and kindergartens.
A bureau spokesman said the weapons could arm civilian security forces in schools and improve their self-defense abilities.
The bureau had also sent policemen to teach security staff and teachers how to use the weapon.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
