AFP - Friday, May 14
On Wednesday, a disgruntled landlord with a meat cleaver hacked to death seven children, all under the age of five, and two adults at a kindergarten in the city of Hanzhong in Shaanxi province, state press reports said.
Eleven other children were injured, two seriously.
The incident, which ended with the assailant's suicide, was the fifth attack on children in less than two months and comes despite a push to boost security in and around schools across the country.
A preliminary police investigation found that local villager Wu Huanming, 48, had rented a house to the proprietor of the privately-run kindergarten and was upset that the property was not vacated in April, when the lease expired.
More than 2,000 security guards dressed in riot gear and armed with tear gas were sent to some Beijing schools on Wednesday, but thousands more were needed to patrol the capital's schools alone, the Beijing News said, citing police.
Similar scenes were occurring nationwide, press reports said, with armed police seen at schools in the city of Changsha, capital of the central province of Hunan.
Experts have said the latest attacks show that China is paying the price for focusing on economic growth for decades while ignoring mental health problems linked to the nation's rapid social change.
Related article: China school attacks expose mental health dilemma
Some of the Internet users crowding China's chatrooms on Thursday appeared to agree.
"Those people who 'massacre' children are basically weak people," a blogger on the popular zaobao.com portal said.
"Faced with actual pressures and dissatisfaction, they have few ways to channel the strong feelings of revenge spinning in their heads and can only later explode in violence."
On Wednesday, a disgruntled landlord with a meat cleaver hacked to death seven children, all under the age of five, and two adults at a kindergarten in the city of Hanzhong in Shaanxi province, state press reports said.
Eleven other children were injured, two seriously.
The incident, which ended with the assailant's suicide, was the fifth attack on children in less than two months and comes despite a push to boost security in and around schools across the country.
A preliminary police investigation found that local villager Wu Huanming, 48, had rented a house to the proprietor of the privately-run kindergarten and was upset that the property was not vacated in April, when the lease expired.
More than 2,000 security guards dressed in riot gear and armed with tear gas were sent to some Beijing schools on Wednesday, but thousands more were needed to patrol the capital's schools alone, the Beijing News said, citing police.
Similar scenes were occurring nationwide, press reports said, with armed police seen at schools in the city of Changsha, capital of the central province of Hunan.
Experts have said the latest attacks show that China is paying the price for focusing on economic growth for decades while ignoring mental health problems linked to the nation's rapid social change.
Related article: China school attacks expose mental health dilemma
Some of the Internet users crowding China's chatrooms on Thursday appeared to agree.
"Those people who 'massacre' children are basically weak people," a blogger on the popular zaobao.com portal said.
"Faced with actual pressures and dissatisfaction, they have few ways to channel the strong feelings of revenge spinning in their heads and can only later explode in violence."
