No fewer than eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect—a former student—has been arrested, police said.
The attack occurred in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing, Jiangsu province, according to Yixing police, who confirmed the toll.
Police claimed the suspect was a 21-year-old former student at the institution who was supposed to graduate this year but failed his examinations.
“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.
In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilised to treat the injured and give follow-up care to individuals affected by the attack.
Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are highly regulated, but attacks with such a high death toll are unusual.
Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man ploughed his little SUV into a crowd in Zhuhai, southern China, killing 35 people and injuring over 40 more.
In addition, there have been a number of other attacks in recent months. In October, a man killed three people and injured 15 others in a knife assault at a store in Shanghai.
A month before, a Japanese teenager was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
