BEIJING: A stabbing attack in Beijing’s Haidian district left five people, including three children, injured, CNN reported, citing Chinese police. The incident took place at 3:20 p.m. local time (3.20 a.m. ET) on Monday, local police said in a statement.
The suspect, a 50-year-old man named Tang, was apprehended at the scene. The injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. Authorities confirmed their injuries are not life-threatening, the statement added.
A video shared on social media showed two children lying unresponsive and bleeding on the ground. One was receiving care from an adult; the other was still wearing a backpack, as per CNN.
A third person was seen lying on the floor a short distance away, being attended to by a number of onlookers holding bloodstained tissues. CNN has not verified that footage.
Police said the incident occurred at the intersection of Wanquanzhuang Road and Wanliu Middle Road. That location is next to Zhongguancun No. 3 Elementary School.
Earlier this month a deadly knife attack occurred at a suburban supermarket in Shanghai, China in which three people were killed while 15 people sustained injuries, according to a report in the Al Jazeera.
The most recent attack, in a series of brutal stabbing incidents in major Chinese cities this year, this knife attack took place on October 1 in the city’s southwest.
Soon after the incident took place, the suspect, a 37-year-old man with the last name Lin, was taken into custody, the local Songjiang police branch said in a statement on Tuesday.
A 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy was stabbed last month in the southern city of Shenzhen. He later succumbed to his injuries, according to Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, in May, a man killed eight people and injured one with a knife in the city of Xiaogan in central Hubei province.
China, despite its low violent crime rate, has experienced a series of disturbing stabbing incidents in recent years. These attacks have included targeted violence at schools, such as the 2020 knife attack on an elementary school and subsequent attacks near kindergartens in 2022 and 2023. (ANI)