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2 Dead, 18 Wounded in Knife Attack in China | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Two people were killed and 18 wounded in the latest knife attack to strike China. (AFP)


Two people were killed and 18 wounded in the latest stabbing attack in China, state media reported.

The suspected knife attacker, identified as Chen Guangliang, 30, was detained following Sunday afternoon’s attack along a roadway in Guizhou province, according to a statement posted on a local government website.

All twenty victims were rushed to hospital after the attack, but two later died, said the report. The rest are in stable condition.

Chen’s father told authorities that his son had a history of mental illness, according to the initial statement.

Prior to the attack, Chen attempted to set fire to a gas station, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Knife attacks are not uncommon in China.

In January a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In February last year, a knife-wielding assailant wounded 10 children in Haikou, in the southern island province of Hainan, before committing suicide.

In 2014 state media reported that a man stabbed three children and a teacher to death and wounded several others in a rampage at a primary school that refused to enroll his daughter.

That followed a March 2013 incident in which a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China’s commercial hub Shanghai.

Gun ownership is sharply restricted in China.

Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation’s economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly.