A horrific attack unfolded Monday morning in Lianjiang, Guangdong province, China, as a 25-year-old man stormed a kindergarten armed with a knife. The assault resulted in the deaths of six individuals, including both children and adults, with one additional person sustaining injuries.
Identified only by his surname, Wu, the suspect launched the attack around 7:40 a.m. local time. While official details remain scarce, local media indicate that at least one child and one teacher are among the deceased.
Preliminary reports from Dafeng News suggest a possible motive connected to a prior vehicular incident outside the kindergarten. A witness account alleges that a car struck the attacker's child before the stabbing, and the driver of that vehicle is reportedly among the victims.
Graphic videos purportedly depicting the attack and its aftermath rapidly spread across Weibo, China's dominant social media platform, sparking widespread outrage and grief. One video appears to show the assailant carrying a knife near the kindergarten playground, while another displays injured victims outside the school. The incident quickly became a trending topic, accumulating over 290 million views within hours, according to Reuters. User comments expressed shock, anger, and calls for the death penalty.
This tragedy adds to a disturbing pattern of kindergarten attacks in China in recent years, despite the nation's stringent gun control laws. Previous incidents include a 2022 stabbing in Jiangxi that claimed three lives and injured six, a 2021 attack in Guangxi leaving two children dead and 16 wounded, a 2020 incident where a school guard injured 39 with a knife, and a 2017 attack involving an explosive device outside a Jiangsu kindergarten resulting in multiple fatalities and injuries.
Chinese authorities have often attributed such attacks to personal grievances, mental health issues, or neurological disorders, with knives and homemade explosives being the primary weapons used, as reported by Reuters.
