Nine killed in China kindergarten attack (Second Lead)

BEIJING - Seven children and two adults at a kindergarten were hacked to death Wednesday while 11 students sustained injuries in a frenzied attack in China’s Shaanxi province. The attacker later committed suicide.

A 48-year-old villager, identified as Wu Huanming, hacked to death five boys, two girls and the kindergarten owner-cum-teacher, Wu Hongying, using a kitchen meat knife at around 8 a.m. local time Wednesday at a privately-run kindergarten in Linchang village in Nanzheng County, Xinhua quoted officials of the Shaanxi Provincial Emergency Response Office as saying.

Wu Hongying’s mother, who was injured in the attack, died in hospital later Wednesday, an official said, adding that 11 children were also injured in the gruesome attack and have been admitted at a hospital.

The attacker, Wu Huanming, returned home after the killings and committed suicide, they said. His motive for the attack was not immediately known.

The government has asked local authorities to strengthen security in schools in the province.

This was the fifth attack in kindergartens and primary schools in China since March.

A mentally unstable 41-year-old doctor, Zheng Minsheng, who stabbed eight schoolchildren to death in Fujian province’s Nanping Experimental Elementary School March 23, admitted in court that he “intentionally” killed them. Zheng earlier said he wanted to stab more than 30 children.

Twenty-eight children were stabbed April 29 by a 47-year-old unemployed man at Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing city in Jiangsu province. A day before that, 16 primary school students were stabbed by a mentally unstable 33-year-old man at the Leicheng First Primary School in Guangdong province’s Leizhou city.

A farmer from Shangzhuang village in Shandong province, immolated himself April 30 after viciously hitting five kindergarten children and a teacher with a hammer at a school.