Man kills eight in China stabbing rampage
(AFP) – 7 hours ago
BEIJING — A man stabbed to death eight people including his wife, elderly mother and young daughter in a village in southeastern China, the latest in a spate of rampage attacks that have shocked the nation.
The suspect, identified as Zhou Yezhong, waged his killing spree in the village of Chengyuan in Jiangxi province on Saturday, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, quoting police and residents.
China has been hit by a series of assaults, many of them against children, in a country where violent criminal attacks remain relatively rare.
Another two people were killed and three wounded in a stabbing spree in the city of Hong Kong on Saturday, authorities there said.
Citing witness accounts, Xinhua said Zhou first killed his 10-year-old daughter and then his mother, aged in her eighties, even though she fell to her knees begging for mercy.
The man, aged 36, rushed to another house where he killed his wife and two neighbours before stabbing two other villagers who were running away to seek help, and a migrant worker, Xinhua said.
He was caught by police almost two hours after his rampage began, and an investigation is under way. The motive of the killings was still unknown, said Zhou Weihui, head of the county public security bureau.
Cities around China have taken a number of measures after a series of attacks on children, with the public security ministry calling for stepped up security around schools and kindergartens.
The attacks underscore how China -- which has enjoyed lower violent crime rates than the West -- faces a growing public safety threat from disgruntled individuals, rising mental illness rates and looser social controls.
Studies have cited a rise in mental disorders, some linked to stress as the world's most populous country becomes more fast-paced.
In one of the most gruesome attacks, a former doctor stabbed to death eight school children and injured five others in the province of Fujian in March in a fit of rage after breaking up with his girlfriend.
At his trial prosecutors played video clips showing the man -- who was later executed -- stabbing children with a dagger as they arrived at school.
Last month, a jobless man apparently angered by personal and professional setbacks slashed 29 children and three adults at a kindergarten in the eastern city of Taixing.
In another attack last month, a farmer armed with a hammer injured five children and a teacher at a primary school in the eastern province of Shandong before setting himself on fire.
And a 33-year-old teacher placed on sick leave for mental problems injured 15 students and a teacher in a knife attack at a primary school in the southern province of Guangdong, also last month.
The new security measures in China include increased police patrols near schools and tighter monitoring of people known to be mentally ill.
A study last year estimated that 173 million adults in China have some type of mental disorder, 91 percent of whom have never received professional help.
Separately, a 42-year-old man who went on a stabbing spree on a Hong Kong housing estate on Saturday was charged on Sunday with two counts of murder, city authorities said.
The man, who is thought to be mentally unstable, killed a 35-year-old employee at the estate's management office and a 56-year-old woman resident and wounded three other people.
"There is no evidence to indicate he had quarrels with any of the victims," assistant district police commander Law King-fu was quoted by the Sunday Morning Post as saying.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
and someone in Honk Kong stabbed two persons to death