Spike in Knife Attacks Shakes China's Safety Perception

Beijing, May 20 (PTI) – Five people were injured in a knife attack at a primary school in Jiangxi province, marking the second such incident this month. Authorities attribute these attacks to mentally deranged individuals. China has seen a rise in mass knife attacks due to restricted gun ownership.

Five people were injured in a knife attack at a primary school in east China's Jiangxi province on Monday noon, local authorities said, in the second such incident in the country this month.

The incident happened in Guixi city.

The five injured have been hospitalised and are receiving medical treatment, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the provincial public security authority.

This is the second knife attack in China this month, which has become a common occurrence. Officials blame these attacks on disgruntled or mentally deranged people.

Earlier this month, two people were killed and 21 others injured in an incident of mass stabbing at a hospital on May 7 in Yunnan province.

China, where private gun ownership is illegal for most civilians, has faced a spate of mass knife attacks in public places in recent years.

In August last year, two people were killed and seven others injured after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife in a residential district in Yunnan. In July of the same year, six people, including three children, were killed in a stabbing incident at a kindergarten in the south-eastern province of Guangdong.

Zhenxiong County, situated in Yunnan's northeast, borders Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and, until 2020, was classified as poverty-stricken.