Seven Children Hacked To Death In Latest Attack In China
At a hospital in Hanzhong City, a child is rushed to intensive care. (AP Photo/Xinhua/Wu Tianchang) hide caption
At a hospital in Hanzhong City, a child is rushed to intensive care. (AP Photo/Xinhua/Wu Tianchang)
Update at 9:20 a.m. ET: The AP now reports that seven children and two adults were killed in today's attack. Eleven other children were reportedly wounded.
Our original post:
There's been another horrific attack on school children in China, as the Associated Press reports:
"An attacker hacked seven children and one teacher to death Wednesday and wounded up to 20 other people in a rampage at a kindergarten in northwest China, the latest in a string of savage assaults at the country's schools."
NPR's Anthony Kuhn, reporting from Beijing, notes that "since mid-March, China has seen five similar incidents," leaving 17 people -- mostly children -- dead. Eighty other people, again mostly children, have been injured.
Most of the attacks, Anthony says, "have involved unemployed, middle-aged male attackers with grudges against society." Today's attacker later committed suicide.
Warning -- Parts of Anthony's report may be disturbing to some listeners:
The BBC says that the young victims in today's attack "were all thought to be under the age of six."
Last month, NPR's Louisia Lim spoke with All Things Considered co-host Melissa Block about the spate of attacks. As she said, there's no simple answer to the key question -- Why? "People are saying that this demonstrates their real lack of mental health provisions in China," Louisa reported. "And also the fact that the social security net has broken down because people are moving around a lot as well. There is a real lack of social and psychological support":