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Hammer maniac in copycat attack at China school
30.04.10
London Evening Standard
A man burned himself to death after beating five children with a hammer at a primary school in China today, the third attack on pupils in the country in three days — and the fourth in little over a month.
In the latest of what experts say is a rash of copycat crimes, he grabbed two children, doused himself in petrol and set himself ablaze. Teachers dragged the children to safety.
The man, identified locally as a farmer, rode a motorbike at the school gates to smash them down before launching his attack in Weifang city, Shandong province, in the north-east of the country. The injured children are in a stable condition, and their injuries were said not to be life-threatening.
The attacks of the last three days are considered to have been sparked by the deaths of eight children at the hands of a knifeman on March 23 at a school in Fujian province, eastern China.
Yesterday 28 children, most of them aged about four, and three adults were attacked by a 47-year-old unemployed man wielding a knife at a nursery school in Jiangsu province in eastern China.
On Wednesday, 15 pupils and a teacher were wounded by a 33-year-old former teacher at their primary school in Guangdong province in the south.
Earlier that day a doctor, 42-year-old Zheng Minsheng, was executed for the eight killings in Fujian.
Liu Jianqing, a professor of criminal psychology at China's University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said: “There is probably some kind of copycat element. People in similar predicaments emulate this because of the impact of the mass media these days.”
The assaults were also likely to be acts of self-destruction by the attackers, he said, because such crimes stand a high chance of receiving a death sentence.
He said that beyond mental illness, rising strains in China's fast-changing society might have a role in the growing number of violent crimes.
Most of the school assaults have occurred on the east coast, where both the cost of living and income inequality are high.
30.04.10
London Evening Standard
A man burned himself to death after beating five children with a hammer at a primary school in China today, the third attack on pupils in the country in three days — and the fourth in little over a month.
In the latest of what experts say is a rash of copycat crimes, he grabbed two children, doused himself in petrol and set himself ablaze. Teachers dragged the children to safety.
The man, identified locally as a farmer, rode a motorbike at the school gates to smash them down before launching his attack in Weifang city, Shandong province, in the north-east of the country. The injured children are in a stable condition, and their injuries were said not to be life-threatening.
The attacks of the last three days are considered to have been sparked by the deaths of eight children at the hands of a knifeman on March 23 at a school in Fujian province, eastern China.
Yesterday 28 children, most of them aged about four, and three adults were attacked by a 47-year-old unemployed man wielding a knife at a nursery school in Jiangsu province in eastern China.
On Wednesday, 15 pupils and a teacher were wounded by a 33-year-old former teacher at their primary school in Guangdong province in the south.
Earlier that day a doctor, 42-year-old Zheng Minsheng, was executed for the eight killings in Fujian.
Liu Jianqing, a professor of criminal psychology at China's University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said: “There is probably some kind of copycat element. People in similar predicaments emulate this because of the impact of the mass media these days.”
The assaults were also likely to be acts of self-destruction by the attackers, he said, because such crimes stand a high chance of receiving a death sentence.
He said that beyond mental illness, rising strains in China's fast-changing society might have a role in the growing number of violent crimes.
Most of the school assaults have occurred on the east coast, where both the cost of living and income inequality are high.
