TWO people were killed and 21 wounded after a man went on a stabbing spree at a hospital in southwest China, local officials said.
“A knife attack occurred at the Chengnan Hospital in Zhenxiong County, which resulted in two deaths and 21 injuries,” a statement on the county’s official WeChat account said yesterday.
The suspect – a man from a nearby village – is under investigation, authorities said.
The wounded were being treated in hospital, they added.
Images published by the state-run news site The Paper appeared to show a man pointing a knife at another man wielding a stick in a hospital lobby, as well as police officers arriving at the scene. No motive was given for the attack.
A witness told Red Star News, an online outlet, that he had narrowly escaped the attack and that a doctor or doctors were among the injured.
Video from the witness shows people who were bleeding and had fallen to the ground, as well as one older person trying to help another, the Red Star social media post said.
Earlier media reports said 23 people had been injured, but the police statement said the total was 21. A video posted online by Guizhou Province Television shows a man being taken away by police.
Mass violent crime is rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of stabbings in recent years.
Last August in Yunnan, two people died and seven others were wounded after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife.
The month before, six people were killed and one wounded in a kindergarten stabbing in southern Guangdong province.
And in August 2022, three people were killed and six were wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southeast Jiangxi province. — Agencies
