BEIJING – A school security guard injured at least 39 people in a knife attack in a kindergarten in southern China on Thursday morning, state media reported. The motive is still unknown.
The attack was a frightening setback to the deadly attacks on schools in China over the past few years that prompted increased security and that authorities have blamed most people who hold grudges or who have unknown mental illness.
Local authorities in the Cangwu region of Guangxi region said 37 students and two adults suffered injuries to varying degrees in the attack.
Chinese state media identified the attacker as a security guard at the school surnamed Li. The suspect has been arrested while the investigation is ongoing, they said.
The state broadcaster CCTV said 40 had been injured, three seriously, including the principal, another security guard and a student.
In the previous attack, a woman who used a knife injured 14 children in a kindergarten in the western city of Chongqing in October 2018.
Nearly 20 children were killed in school attacks in 2010, prompting responses from leading government officials and leading many schools to add gates and security guards.
Chinese law limits the sale and possession of firearms, and mass attacks are generally carried out with knives or homemade explosives.
