Children injured in attack on school in China

A man was arrested on Tuesday after attacking children at a primary school in the Xicheng district of Beijing. Authorities said the man was armed with a hammer.

Of the 20 children taken to hospital, three were reported to have been seriously injured, although their condition was stable, according to the local government.

The attack took place in the late morning, and the suspect was arrested at the scene.

Authorities gave few details, but there were posts on social media indicating that the children had suffered wounds to their heads.

According to the Beijing No. 1 Affiliated Elementary School of Xuanwu Normal School website, it has 2,537 students and 199 teaching personnel.
There have been several attacks on children in the past five years in China:

• In 2014, a man stabbed children as they were walking to school in southern Guangxi province.
• In January 2017, a man stabbed 12 children in southern China.
• In April 2018, nine people were killed outside a middle school in northwestern China.
• In November 2018, five people were killed when a car was driven into a crowd of children outside a kindergarten in the northeast of the country.

jm/msh (Reuters, AP)

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