China suffered its third lethal attack on a kindergarten in three days, after a farmer injured five children with a hammer in the north of the country before setting himself on fire
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai and Peter Foster in Beijing
The latest incident came one day after four children were feared dead and 29 injured in a knife attack at a kindergarten in Jiangsu province. On Wednesday, a man in the southern city of Leizhou also used a knife to hack at 15 primary school pupils and a teacher.
The third attack occurred in the small village of Shangzhuang, near the city of Weifang in the northern province of Shandong. Just before eight o'clock in the morning, a man named as Wang Yonglai broke through the side door of the local pre-school, according to Xinhua, the government news agency.
Armed with a hammer and carrying a can of petrol, he struck a teacher and then lashed out at five children before he picked two up, doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire.
Teachers at the school managed to grab the children from him, but Wang was reported to have died. The five victims are said to be in stable condition in the local hospital and none have life-threatening injuries.
The spate of attacks has horrified Chinese parents, who now fear that the apparent copycat attacks could continue. The Chinese ministry of Education has ordered security at all schools to be stepped up to try to tamp down the panic.
Ling Jie, the head of Modern Baby Kindergarten in Shanghai said her school now had two security guards on duty throughout the day. "I have received calls from parents all of last night and today about the security," she said. "After the May holiday we are going to take the security system more seriously, but I think the government should draw up some standards," she added.
A teacher in the 6th Kindergarten in Beijing said that the local police force had been ordered to guard the school, with extra patrols being sent out during rush hours. "The police and security guards have also been given steel restraining poles," she added.
She said, however, that the attention of the media on the cases had been unhelpful and had triggered the copycat attacks. "It is not good to publicise these events when they trigger social instability," she said.
The Chinese propaganda department has ordered that coverage of the attacks should not be put on the front pages of Chinese newspapers and that reports should strictly follow the line set by Xinhua.
Daily Telegraph
