US woman stabbed to death in front of Beijing shoppers

A knife-wielding man killed two people, including a woman from the United States, in an attack in China’s capital, state media said on Thursday.

The stabbing happened outside a shopping mall in downtown Beijing on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing local police.

Police detained a 27-year-old man surnamed Xiao from eastern China following the attack, which was witnessed by hundreds of bystanders, the report said.

The suspect is unemployed and has claimed he is mentally ill, the report said. It did not give the names of the dead but said the other victim was a Chinese male.

China had a murder rate of 1.0 per 100,000 people in 2010, according to the United Nations, among the lowest in the world.

Local police said they could not immediately comment on the details of the case, when contacted on Thursday.