ZCZC
BFF-22
CHINA-SCHOOL-CRIME
51 children injured in chemical attack at China kindergarten
BEIJING, Nov 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – More than 50 people, mostly children,
were injured by a man who broke into a kindergarten in southwest China and
sprayed them with corrosive liquid, local authorities said Tuesday.
The suspect, a 23-year-old surnamed Kong, entered the kindergarten by
climbing a wall before spraying victims with sodium hydroxide, said local
authorities in Kaiyuan city, Yunnan province.
The attack took place on Monday at 3:35 pm (0735 GMT), authorities said on
their Twitter-like Weibo account.
Some 51 children and three teachers were admitted to hospital for
treatment, two with “severe symptoms”.
Police arrested Kong less than an hour after the attack.
“Because his parents divorced during his childhood, the lack of family
warmth resulted in psychological distortion,” said local authorities, adding
that Zhang’s work and life were unsatisfactory as well.
All this created a “pessimistic mentality and thoughts about retaliating
against society”, they said.
Violent attacks targeting schoolchildren are not uncommon in China, which
has seen a slew of deadly incidents over the past few years — usually
involving knives.
In April last year, a 28-year-old man killed nine middle-school students as
they were returning home in one of the country’s deadliest knife attacks in
recent years.
The killer, who said he had been bullied when he attended the school in
northern China’s Shaanxi province, was executed in September last year.
Later in 2018, a knife-wielding woman injured 14 children at a kindergarten
in Sichuan province.
The 39-year-old assailant slashed students while they were returning to the
classroom after morning exercises.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1402 hrs