Five people, including three children, were injured in a knife attack in Beijing on Monday, Chinese media reported.
The attack took place at around 3:20 p.m. local time on Monday in the capital’s upmarket Haidian district, police said in a statement.
The Haidian District Municipal Police Office said the suspected attacker was apprehended at the scene. He is believed to be 50-year-old Tan Moumou.
The attack took place at the school gate as students were leaving the school. Police said the injured were taken to hospital and were “not in a life-threatening condition.”
Footage circulating on social media showed emotional and chaotic scenes, with at least two children lying on the pavement bleeding and bicycles scattered on the ground. One of the injured children lay unconscious on his mother’s lap. A man with his face covered in blood was pinned to the ground after the attack, pictures show.
Series of knife attack incidents
It was the latest knife attack in a series of incidents that continue to shake a country where violent crime is still rare. There have been many high-profile stabbings in the country, including in schools and hospitals, as gun control laws are very strict, making knives and improvised explosives one of the most common weapons.
The incidents have also sparked discussion on social media about mental health issues, with many reflecting on how discontent and anxiety over the country’s economic difficulties have affected people.
The world’s second-largest economy has slowed down after COVID-19’s harsh lockdowns that locked people out of their homes, and the country has faced problems such as a property crisis, low spending and unemployment.
Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy died after he was attacked with a knife near his school in the southern city of Shenzhen. In June, a Chinese woman who tried to intervene in a knife attack at a Japanese school bus stop in Suzhou was killed and a woman and her child were injured. In early October, three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai.
