Suspects arrested in separate knife attacks on children in Henan and Beijing women

A man wielding a knife in China’s central Henan province attacked dozens of pupils outside a village school on Friday morning, injuring 22 students and one local, according to Guangshan county’s official website. 

The 36-year-old suspect, identified by the police as Min Yingjun, attacked pupils of Wan Quan Elementary School in Chenpeng village at 7.40am, said the report.

Police said they later arrested the suspect, a resident of Zoupeng village in Guangshan county.  It’s not clear what prompted his attack.

In a separate knife attack in Beijing, police announced on Thursday evening that they had arrested a man suspected of slashing the faces of "a number" of women in subway cars.

The 25-year-old suspect, identified only by his last name Hu, confessed to slashing the faces of his victims, mostly young women, on the city's crowded Nos 5 and 10 subway lines, according to the police statement.

Hu "took revenge on society because of relationship frustrations," it said.

One victim told a local newspaper that she felt someone bump into her as the subway door opened at a stop, but she didn't realise she was hurt until several stops later, when she saw blood dripping on the floor. She received 15 stiches.

Days before the police report, rumours of a serial subway slasher on the loose had been circulating on social media sites such as weibo, China's Twitter-like service. The police statement was the first official acknowlegement of the crime spree. Local media said they had identified at least five similar cases.