Deadly attack on a school in southeast China

First modification: 07/10/2023 – 11:31

Reporting from Beijing, Stéphane Lagarde

The attack occurred Monday morning at 7:40 a.m. local time, according to the Wechat account of the Lianjiang public security bureau in the southeastern province of Guangdong.

Images circulated on social networks of the attacker in black pants and a light-colored T-shirt being pushed by the agents into a police vehicle. The suspect is 25 years old and responds to the name of Wu – in China it is the first names that distinguish people, and these are not revealed until the case has come to trial. The motives of the alleged murderer are unknown, but according to the police it was “intentional injuries”.

numerous precedents

These types of attacks on schools regularly make headlines in China. Last August, two people were killed and six others injured in a knife attack on a kindergarten in southeast China’s Jiangxi province.

In the spring of 2021, two children were killed and sixteen others injured in a stab attack on a kindergarten in Beiliu, in the southern province of Guangxi.

In all, around 100 children and adults have been killed and hundreds injured in the past decade in seemingly uncoordinated attacks by “lone wolves” whose motives are unclear.

The attackers, mostly men, have been murdered, executed after trial or have taken their own lives. There are increasing calls to try to understand the roots of the evil and the underlying causes of these acts of violence.