List of attacks
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March 2010
On March 23, 2010, Zheng Minsheng (郑民生) [7] 41, murdered eight children with a knife in an elementary school in Nanping, [8] Fujian province; [9] The attack was widely reported in Chinese media (called 南平实验小学重大凶杀案), [7] sparking fears of copycat crimes. [9] Following a quick trial, Zheng Minsheng was executed about one month later on April 28. [8] Media reported a history of mental health issues, but police stated that Zheng had no history of mental illness, contradicting earlier reports. Zheng said that he performed the attack after being turned down by a girl and suffering "unfair treatment" from the girl's wealthy family.
April 2010
Xizhen stabbing
On April 13, a mentally ill man went on a stabbing rampage at Xizhen Primary School in Xichang, southern Guangxi, killing an eight-year-old boy and an 80-year-old woman passerby. It was the second random attack on schoolchildren in the mainland in three weeks. Also injured were five people – two boys, aged seven and 12, a seven-year-old girl and a couple in their thirties. The knife-wielding suspect, Yang Jiaqin, aged 40, was detained. [10]
Hongfu stabbing
On April 28, just a few hours after the execution of Zheng Minsheng in neighboring Fujian Province, [11] in Leizhou, [12] Guangdong another knife-wielding man named Chen Kangbing, 33 (陈康炳) [13] attacked Hongfu Primary School, and wounded 16 students and a teacher. [9] Chen Kangbing had been a teacher at a different primary school in Leizhou, but was on sick leave due to mental illness. [13] He was sentenced to death by a court in Zhanjiang in June. [14]
Zhongzin stabbing
On April 29 in Taixing, [8] Jiangsu, 47-year-old unemployed man Xu Yuyuan went to Zhongxin Kindergarten [15] and stabbed 29 students and two teachers after stabbing the security guard; [9] most of the Taixing students were four years old. [16] On May 15, he was sentenced to death for "intentional homicide", despite no official reports on any injured students dying. Internet reports, however, claimed that an untold number of the children had died. [17]
Weifang hammer attack
On April 30, Wang Yonglai used a hammer to inflict head injuries to preschool children in Weifang, [8] Shandong, then used gasoline to commit suicide by self-immolation. He went on a rampage after authorities attempted to tear down his newly built family home since it was built on farmland, which is illegal. [9]
May 2010
Shengshui Temple cleaver attack
An attacker named Wu Huanming (吴环明), 48, killed seven children and two adults and injured 11 others with a cleaver at the Shengshui Temple private kindergarten in Hanzhong, Shaanxi on May 12, 2010; [8] early reports were removed from the internet in China, for fear that mass coverage of such violence could provoke copycat attacks. [8] [18] The attacker later committed suicide at his house; he was the landlord of the school, [19] and had been involved in an ongoing dispute with the school administrator about when the school would move out of the building. [19]
Hainan knife attack
On May 18, 2010, at Hainan Institute of Science and Technology (海南科技职业学院), a vocational college in Haikou, Hainan, more than ten men [20] charged into a dormitory wielding knives around 2:30 a.m.; [21] after attacking the security guard and disabling security cameras, nine students were injured, one seriously. [21] The local men attacked the dorm in an act of revenge and retaliation against college students following conflict the previous day at an off-campus food stall in which four students were injured, for a total of 13. [22]
August 2010
On August 4, 2010, 26-year-old Fang Jiantang (方建堂) slashed more than 20 children and staff with a 60 cm knife at a kindergarten in Zibo, Shandong province, killing three children and one teacher. Of the injured, three other children and four teachers were taken to a hospital. After being caught, Fang confessed to the crime. There was no known motive. [23]
August 2011
Eight children, between the ages of three and five, [24] were injured in Minhang District, Shanghai, when an employee at a child-care centre for migrant workers slashed the children with a box-cutter. [25] The woman had worked there for years, but was thought to have psychiatric problems.
September 2011
In September 2011, a young girl and three adults taking their children to nursery school were killed in Gongyi, [26] Henan by 30-year-old Wang Hongbin with an axe. [27] Another child and an adult were seriously wounded but survived. [28] Hongbin is a local farmer who is suspected of being mentally ill. [29]
September 2012
Guangxi Zhuang nursery stabbing
On September 21, 2012, three children died and 13 more were injured after a suspected mental patient allegedly broke into a nursery in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and attacked students with a knife. The suspect, Wu Yechang, aged 25, was caught on-site by police officers, who rushed to the nursery after receiving emergency calls. [30]
Henan College break-in
On September 25, 2012, a 20-year-old man surnamed Zhang broke into a girls' dormitory in the Henan Vocational and Technical College, killing three students and wounding another. He was later arrested. [31]
December 2012
On December 14, 2012, 36-year-old Min Yongjun stabbed 23 children and an elderly woman in the village of Chenpeng, Henan Province at the village's primary school as children were arriving for classes. [32] The attacker was restrained at the school, and later arrested. [33] All of the victims survived and were treated at three hospitals, though some were reportedly seriously injured, with fingers or ears cut off, and had to be transferred to larger hospitals for specialized care. [34]
March 2013
Shanghai stabbings
A knife-wielding attacker killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China's commercial hub of Shanghai. The man, whose surname was given as Zang, killed his sister and her mother-in-law at their home in a family dispute over money. Zang then attacked parents and children outside an elementary school in the suburban district of Fengxian just as classes were let out. [35]
Yulin City school beating
Two boys died after they were beaten by a member of staff at a primary school in southern China. The boys, who attended a private school in Yulin City, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, died later in hospital. [36]
September 2013
Two adults were killed outside Balijie Primary School, and 44 others were injured after a homemade explosive detonated. Most of the injured were schoolchildren. One of those killed was the bomber, who was riding his motorcycle during the explosion. [37] [38] [39]
May 2014
On May 20, 2014, a man armed with a meat cleaver slashed eight children on a playground located within the Macheng school in Hubei province. Eight students were injured; one seriously, suffering major blood loss, with the other seven sustaining minor injuries. The perpetrator, identified as 35-year-old Chen Zuihang, [40] was arrested without incident. [41] [42] Chen had a history of drug usage (being previously arrested for said crime in 2006 and 2011), and tested positive for methamphetamine in a urine test taken right after the incident. [43]
September 2014
Dongfang stabbing
A man stabbed three children to death at a primary school in central China and then committed suicide by jumping off a building. The attacker, identified by his surname Chen, broke into Dongfang Primary School in Hubei province around 10:20 in the morning. Wielding a knife, the man stabbed eight students and a teacher before committing suicide. [44]
Lingshan stabbing
The same month, four children were stabbed to death as they were walking to their school in Lingshan County, Guangxi. A 56-year-old suspect, who chased the children with a fruit knife, is wanted. [45] [46] [ needs update ]
March 2015
On March 18, 2015, a student stabbed three of his classmates, two boys and a girl, at Shouchang Middle School in Jiande City, Hangzhou; their injuries were not life-threatening. The attack took place during nap time, and the perpetrator jumped out of a window before later being treated at a hospital. [47] [48]
February 2016
A man in southern China injured ten schoolchildren by stabbing them before killing himself. The incident took place in Haikou, the capital city of the southern island province of Hainan. The motive for the attack is unclear. [49]
November 2016
Around 11:40 a.m. 58-year-old Lei Mingyue entered an after-school care center in Hantai District and attacked students lining up for lunch with an axe. After wounding seven female students from Beiguan Primary School he fled the premises, injuring two passersby during his escape. He was later arrested by police and stated that he carried out the attack as revenge on society after he was arrested twice for theft. [50] [51]
May 2017
A driver angry over the loss of his overtime pay set fire to his school bus in the city of Weihai, Shandong, killing all 13 people aboard the bus, including 11 children from China and South Korea, the driver himself and a teacher. The driver ignited gasoline, which he had bought earlier, while the bus was travelling through a tunnel in Weihai that is home to many South Korean businesses. Police determined that the fire started on the floor of the bus next to the driver's seat, where the cap to a cigarette lighter and gasoline residue were found. [52]
June 2017
On June 15, 2017, a bombing at a kindergarten in Feng County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, east China, killed at least eight people and injured 65 others. The perpetrator, 22-year-old Xu Taoran, died in the blast. Subsequent investigation revealed that Xu had been mentally ill and was obsessed with death and destruction. [53] The blast occurred at the entrance of the kindergarten, while children were leaving school. Two people died on the spot, and five succumbed to injuries at the hospital. Nine remained in critical condition in the aftermath. [54] Due to the shattering bomb parts, over 60 people were injured and needed medical attention.
April 2018
Nine people were killed in a stabbing outside a middle school in northwestern China. The attack was allegedly carried out by a former pupil seeking revenge for having been bullied. Another 12 people were injured resulting from the rampage outside the No. 3 Middle School in the rural area that took place as classes were being dismissed for the evening. [55] [56]
June 2018
On June 28, outside Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School, one of the best private elementary schools in the city, a man attacked three schoolboys and a mother with a kitchen knife, fatally wounding two boys and injuring the others. The attacker, 29, was caught by pedestrians at the scene. Unemployed, he arrived in Shanghai in early June but failed to find a job. He reportedly committed the crime to "take revenge on society," the man told the police. [57]
October 2018
A knife-wielding assailant injured 14 children at a kindergarten in the western Chinese city of Chongqing. The attacker, a 39-year-old woman, was taken into custody. No motive for the assault was immediately publicized. [58]
January 2019
A 49-year-old man was arrested after attacking 20 children at a primary school in Beijing with a hammer. Three of the children suffered severe injuries. [59]
March 2019
On the afternoon of March 14, 2019, a man attacked students near the Guanghuadao Primary School, 17 students were injured. [60]
September 2019
On September 2, 2019, a 40-year-old attacker surnamed Yu killed eight students and injured two others at an elementary school in Chaoyangpo, Enshi City, Hubei, on the first day of the new semester. The motive and method of the attack were not specified. The suspect was previously released from prison in June 2018 after serving a sentence for attempted murder. [61]
November 2019
More than 50 people, almost all of them young children, were hospitalized in southwest China on Tuesday after a man broke into a kindergarten and sprayed them with a corrosive chemical[ which? ] as "revenge on society." Fifty-one children and three teachers were injured in the attack in Kaiyuan, in Yunnan province. Two were seriously injured, but their injuries were not life-threatening. [62]
June 2020
On June 4, 2020, 39 people (37 students and two adults) were injured in a knife attack at a primary school. The students suffered mild injuries; two adults suffered more severe injuries. [63]
December 2020
On December 27, 2020, seven people were killed and seven others injured during a mass stabbing attack outside a school in Kaiyuan, in Liaoning province. As the school was closed at the time of the incident, no students or teachers were hurt. The victims were all passersby, mainly middle-aged or elderly women. The attacker then stabbed and wounded a policeman before being arrested. [64]
April 2021
On April 29, 2021, a knife-wielding man broke into a school, killing two children and wounding 16 others. The mass stabbing occurred in Beiliu, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southern China. A man with the surname Zeng, aged 24, was apprehended by police. Authorities did not confirm a motive for the attack, but Hong Kong news outlets, including Oriental Daily and Apple Daily, reported that the suspect was going through a divorce and his wife worked at the school. [65]
August 2022
On August 3, 2022, three people were killed and six others wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southeast China's Jiangxi province. [66] The suspect, identified as 48-year-old Liu Xiaohui, fled to a mountainous area in a neighboring county[ which? ] after the attack, and was arrested 12 hours later. [67]
April 2023
At 5:00 p.m. on April 19, 2023, a mentally unstable student allegedly stabbed seven people at the Qingdao Campus of Shandong University of Science and Technology with a knife, killing one. He was subsequently arrested. [68]
May 2023
On May 14, 2023, a sophomore of the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China allegedly stabbed two of his neighbours to death and severely injured his mother by beating her into a coma. The following day, he went to the Tongzhou campus of his school, where he allegedly stabbed three people, including the vice-principal, who is suspected dead. [69]
July 2023
On July 10, 2023, six people were killed and one wounded in a mass stabbing at a kindergarten in Lianjiang, Guangdong province. The suspect, a 25-year-old man with the surname Wu, was arrested by police. [70]
May 2024
On May 20, 2024, a woman stabbed twelve people with a fruit knife at a primary school in Guixi, Jiangxi, killing two. The suspect, a 45-year-old woman surnamed Pan, was arrested at the scene. [71] [72]
November 2024
Wuxi stabbing attack
On November 16, 2024, eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a stabbing attack on the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology college campus in Yixing, Wuxi, East China. The suspect, a 21-year-old student surnamed Xu, was arrested at the scene. [73]
