Supermarkets in Beijing have been instructed to stop selling knives after two random attacks left three people dead and three injured in the capital over the last week.
Netizens have already ridiculed the move as ineffectual. "I can understand the police departments' concerns," social commentator Yao Bo wrote in a Sina Weibo post. "But what if someone goes into a supermarket and kills someone with a Durian?"
Around January, shops received orders to require customers to register with their real names if they bought knives, customers noted online. Netizens have ridiculed the move as ineffectual.
Beijing authorities have so far only on paper enforced provisional regulations requiring the registration of knives. These date back to 1983. The carrying of knives can be punished with adminstrative detention of up to 15 days and a fine of up to 200 yuan.
The order comes less than 24 hours after a Beijing native, surnamed Wang, stabbed four people at Carrefour shopping centre in Beijing's western district around noon on Monday.
