Knife Attack In Beijing Injures Five, Including Three Children

The incident took place at around 15:20 local time (7:20 in Lisbon) in the Haidian district of the Chinese capital, local police said in a statement.

“The suspect, identified by the surname of Tang [a 50-year-old man], was arrested at the scene,” said the same source, adding that the injured were taken to hospital and ‘are not at risk of death’.

A video shared on social media showed two children lying on the ground, unresponsive and bleeding. One of them was being cared for by an adult; the other was still carrying a backpack. A third person was seen lying on the ground a short distance away, being assisted by several pedestrians, who were holding tissues stained with blood.

Police said the incident occurred at the intersection of Wanquanzhuang Road and Wanliu Middle Road. The site is next to Zhongguancun No.3 elementary school.

The Asian country has low rates of violent crime, but has been rocked by a series of stabbing cases in recent years.

Several of these attacks have targeted schools, including a knife attack in 2020 on an elementary school, as well as attacks on kindergartens in 2022 and 2023.

Chinese media outlets often refer to these kinds of incidents as “acts of revenge against society”.