Two children stabbed to death outside Shanghai primary school
Suspect held by police after pupils killed by knife-wielding man
Two children were stabbed to death by a man outside a primary school in Shanghai on Thursday, local authorities said.
The incident happened at about 11.30am outside the Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School when a knife-wielding man attacked three boys and a mother, Xuhui district police said in a statement.
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Officers arrested a 29-year-old male suspect, identified by his surname Huang, with the assistance of passers-by, according to the statement.
Videos of the incident circulating online showed a man lying on the ground on his stomach being restrained by policemen and members of the public.
The man told police he was “taking revenge on society” because he was struggling financially, and that he had moved to Shanghai at the start of June but had been unable to find a job.
Police said the two other victims were being treated in hospital but their injuries were not life threatening.
The three boys were believed to be pupils at the school and the woman who was attacked was the mother of one of them, according to witnesses.
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Kan Fangfang, who saw the stabbing and helped to subdue the attacker, said the man was lunging at children and parents with a kitchen knife as they left the school gates. He said he saw two boys with neck and arm injuries, and a woman with a head injury.
“He said something like ‘my life is unpleasant’ when we asked him why he did it,” said Kan, a 34-year-old migrant worker who had been on his way to install an air conditioner at a home nearby.
“It was chaotic. The school’s security guards ran out with batons, and I went to help along with some other people. Pretty soon the police arrived and we got him under control and restrained him.”
The attack happened outside the international campus of WFLPS, which is considered one of the best private primary schools in Shanghai. Set up in 1993, it has more than 1,600 students across two campuses, according to its website.
A staff member declined to comment, saying only that the authorities were still investigating.
Pupils had taken part in an end-of-term performance at the school just before the attack happened, according to a parent.
