7 Killed, Several Injured In Knife Attack In China

A knife-wielding man went on a rampage, killing seven people and wounding at least seven others, in north-eastern China Sunday.

The incident took place outside a school in the city of Kaiyuan, in Liaoning province. The police believe that the attack was random. A suspect identified by his surname Yang was arrested.

One of the police officers were also injured while trying to restrain the suspect.

The police responded to an emergency call regarding a knife-wielding man randomly attacking people in the Suntai Road area in the city at around 7:14 p.m. ET on Sunday.

"The man appeared to be in his 50s. He just stabbed strangers with a knife. It was really horrible," a witness who runs a music studio on the road told the news outlet South China Morning Post. The witness also said that the number of victims would have been higher if it was not a school holiday.

The Kaiyuan police have not yet revealed the motive behind the incident and have confirmed that an investigation is underway, reported CNN.

In a video posted by a local news outlet Beijing News on Weibo, one could see the suspect restrained by two police officers, one of them wielding a broom.

Local news outlet Xian Evening News also posted a video of the aftermath of the incident, reported South China Morning Post. In the footage, several people could be seen lying on the ground as cops, emergency officers and medical workers crowd the area. It also shows the suspect being led away by the police.

Knife attacks involving a large number of victims are common in China. In a similar incident in June, a knife-wielding attacker injured 37 children and two adults in an elementary school in South China. The attacker was identified as a 50-year-old security guard, reported news outlet Al Jazeera. All the victims were treated at the hospital and survived the incident.

In 2018, a woman wielding a knife attacked 14 kindergarten children, hurting them as they walked back to classes after their morning exercises, reported CNN. The school security guards and staff restrained the 39-year-old suspect who was later taken into custody.