A woman wielding a kitchen knife stabbed at least 14 children at a Kindergarten in Chongqing in central China, local police revealed on Friday.
According to Chongqing City Banan District police, the children from the Yudong New Century Kindergarten were attacked as they returned to class following their morning exercise, at around 9.30 a.m. local time. Videos posted on Chinese social networks showed the children bleeding from severe cuts to their faces as adults tried to help them.
The nursery’s security guards managed to subdue the assailant before taking her into custody. Footage from the scene appeared to show members of the public trying to hit and kick the woman as she was detained.
Police have so far only identified the suspect as a 39-year-old woman named Liu while failing to provide a motive. Some reports on social media indicated that she may have had a grievance against the Chinese government.
Local police were forced to deny claims that two children had been killed in the attack and have urged people not to spread “rumors” about the attack without official confirmation.
The incident has reportedly shaken the city of over three million people, with one local resident claiming staff were left “dumbstruck” by the incident.
“It happened when the children were entering the school gate,” said Zhang Jing told CNN. The attacker just ran at them with a knife. The teachers were dumbstruck.”
Violent crime is relatively low in China. As part of the Communist Party’s strict limitations on individual rights, ordinary citizens are denied access to guns or other types of firearms and most cities have a high police presence. Those found guilty of violent crimes can face punishments from life in jail to execution. However, the country has seen a spate of violent knife attacks in recent years, many of which have targeted children, leading to new safety measures such as the construction of gates and the employment of security personnel.
The attacks are often carried out by people with grievances against the government or society at large. In June, police arrested an unemployed man who murdered two schoolchildren in Shanghai as a “revenge on society.” In April, a 28-year-old man also killed nine Chinese middle school students traveling between classes in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. The man later claimed he resented children because of his own experiences of being bullied at school.
In 2014, a gang of knife-wielding men murdered 29 people and wounded 130 others at the Kunming train station in China’s Yunnan Province. Government officials condemned the attacks as a “serious violent terrorist attack planned and organized by Xinjiang separatist forces” as they fight for independence from China.