Two Schoolchildren Killed in Shanghai Knife Attack

Flowers were left on Thursday for the victims of a knife attack outside an elementary school in Shanghai. Police say a man with a knife attacked three boys and a mother, killing two of the boys.
Andy Wong/Associated Press

The police in Shanghai say a man armed with a kitchen knife killed two boys in an attack outside an elementary school on Thursday morning.

Another boy and a woman were also stabbed, but their injuries were not life-threatening, according to a statement from the police in the Xuhui district of Shanghai.

The attack occurred outside the Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School at about 11:30 a.m. Bystanders helped grab the suspected assailant, whom the police described as a 29-year-old unemployed man who had moved to Shanghai this month.

Photos on Chinese social media showed a man tied up with a length of webbing and lying face down on the sidewalk as uniformed officers watched over him.

A police statement said the suspect, who was surnamed Huang, told officers that his lack of a stable income “led to thoughts of taking revenge on society, which he carried out.”

Firearms are highly regulated in China, and mass shootings are rare. China has seen knife attacks, though, for more than a decade, often targeting children in schools.

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SOURCE: NY Times, Austin Ramzy