Children among five injured in knife attack near school in China

Fifty-year-old man arrested in connection with latest stabbing attack in China

Police officers stand guard near the scene where two boys were killed outside an elementary school in Shanghai on 28 June 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

Five people, including three children, have suffered injuries in a knife attack near a prestigious primary school in Beijing.

The attack happened on Monday around 3.20pm local time (3.20am ET) in the capital’s upscale Haidian district, the police said in a statement.

The knife-wielding suspect, identified as a 50-year-old man, was subdued at the site and arrested.

The attack is believed to have taken place outside the school gates around a time students were leaving. The police said the injured have been taken to hospital and “are not in life-threatening condition”.

Footage circulating on social media showed emotional and chaotic scenes as at least two children were seen lying on the pavement and bleeding as cycles lay strewn on the ground. One of the injured children lay unresponsive in a mother’s lap.

A man with his face covered in blood was being held to the ground after the attack, images showed.

It was the latest knife attack in the series of incidents that have continued to rock the country where violent crimes are still rare. The country has seen a number of high-profile stabbings including at schools and hospitals as it has very tight gun control laws, making knives and homemade explosives among the most common weapons.

The incidents have also sparked a debate on social media on mental health issues with many reflecting how discontent and anxiety over the country’s economic struggles have affected people.

The world’s second largest economy has been slowed down since the stringent Covid-19 lockdowns that locked the people into their homes and the country suffered problems like property crisis, weak spending, and unemployment.

Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being attacked with a knife near his school in the southern city of Shenzhen.

In June, a Chinese woman who tried to intervene in a stabbing attack at a school bus stop for a Japanese school in Suzhou was killed while a woman and her child were injured.

In early October, three people were killed and 15 others were wounded in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket.