Knife-wielding woman injures 14 children at western China kindergarten; attacker arrested, motive unclear

Beijing: A knife-wielding woman attacked children at a kindergarten in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing on Friday, injuring 14 of them. Police say a 39-year-old woman carrying a kitchen knife entered the school in Banan district as the children were in the playground. [caption id=“attachment_1691043” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of Chinese police. AFP[/caption] The woman, whose surname was given as Liu, has been arrested, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a local state-run Chongqing Broadcasting Group as saying. The motive behind the attack is unclear, though some reports on social media say the woman had a grievance against the government. A mobile recording shared by the broadcaster showed the alleged suspect being dragged away by police, as well as an injured child lying on a hospital stretcher. A screenshot of a WeChat group said “a woman and her husband were arguing, and to take revenge against society she stabbed the children at the kindergarten with a knife”, the report said. China has faced a string of unrelated knife attacks in school and kindergartens in recent years. They have usually been carried out by people seeking revenge against officials or individuals, or who are suffering from mental health problems. On June, a 29-year-old man fatally stabbed two children outside a primary school in Shanghai, while nine schoolchildren were stabbed to death in a county in Shaanxi province in April, the report said.