Update | Stabbing in Beijing's Forbidden City leaves 2 dead

Two people were killed in a stabbing spree Beijing's Forbidden City, the sprawling ancient quarter of imperial palaces and a main tourist attraction in the Chinese capital. 

Beijing police said the two people died after an altercation at a staff canteen in the Palace Museum, commonly known as the Forbidden City, on Friday around noon. The attack occurred near the so-called East Glorious Gate near the southeastern corner of the palace compound. 

The attacker, surnamed Zheng, and the two victims worked at the museum. 

The 49-year-old man tried to commit suicide, but was apprehended and taken to a hospital, the Beijing Times said on its Sina Weibo microblog citing police sources. 

The attack came after a series of stabbing attacks shocked the country and led to a ban on the sale of knives in the capital. In July, a man armed with a knife went on a rampage at a Carrefour shopping centre, in Beijing’s western district, killing one and wounding at least four people. Days earlier, another man stabbed two people, including an American woman, to death, in the city.