Before Tuesday, former surgeon Zheng Minsheng was just another disgruntled mainland man after being dumped by his girlfriend and sacked from his job in Nanping , Fujian .
Now he is the talk of the nation after stabbing 13 primary school pupils in a minute-long rampage that left eight children dead and five in intensive care, one of whom might not emerge from a vegetative state.
The Yancheng Evening News yesterday quoted a doctor as saying that the heart of one of the survivors had stopped beating twice and that after two operations there were doubts about whether the child would regain consciousness. The children were attacked outside the gate of Nanping Experimental Primary School at about 7.20am on Tuesday as they waited for the school to open. The attack shocked the nation and sparked questions about the lack of security near schools.
Local media said at first that Zheng, 42, was mentally ill but later portrayed him as a sane person with personal grudges who was well aware of what he had done. Officials refused to comment on Zheng's mental state.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Nanping Public Security officials told mainland media that Zheng had been charged with murder. Police said Zheng, who was pessimistic by nature, had sought revenge on society after failing to find romance.
A person who saw Zheng trapped by a crowd of people after the attack quoted him as saying 'They are not letting me live so I won't let them live either,' the Guangzhou-based Information Times reported. It quoted Zheng's neighbours as describing him as a tall, handsome man who had not had much luck with women because he had a low-income job. They speculated that Zheng, pushed into a corner in life, had sought revenge on the children of the rich.