According to a local government statement, 37 children and 2 adults were injured after an attacker armed with a knife was able to enter an elementary school in southern China.
Knife attack
The attack happened in Cangwu County, located in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. All of the 39 victims of the attack were hospitalized and fortunately, no one is in serious condition.
The children were all slightly injured, according to a statement that was posted by the Cangwu county. On the other hand, the two adults suffered from more serious injuries.
According to the statement, the suspect was detained by the police. Global Times claimed that the single attacker was a security guard at the elementary school, there was no other information provided about the suspect. The children who attend the said school are between the ages of 6 and 12.
Uncommon occurrence
Unfortunately, the knife attacks in China are not unheard of. There are a number of knife attacks that took place in schools in the past few years.
In October 2018, one woman armed with a kitchen knife injured 14 children at a kindergarten in Chongqing, according to CNN. In April 2018, 9 children were killed at a middle school in Shaanxi province, the suspect was a 28-year-old man who was given the death penalty.
In 2017, 11 students were injured after a suspect climbed over the wall of a kindergarten, armed with a knife, and attacked the children.
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In January 2019, around 20 children in a school in Beijing have been injured after a man attacked them in with a hammer. The horrifying attack happened in Beijing's Xicheng district.
Three out of the 20 children were critical but recovered eventually. The attacker was immediately arrested, though until now the police did not reveal what his motive was to attack the children. There were some reports that stated that he was a former maintenance worker at the school.
Why are there a lot of school attacks in China?
Since 2004, there has been at least one school attack every year. The Chinese government does not make any attempt to address this obvious problem in the country, as deranged citizens are targeting the most innocent and vulnerable lives in society.
Mental health is still a touchy topic in the Chinese community, and serious sufferers are usually left untreated and they are sometimes locked away by their families who are ashamed to talk about the issue. Even the media does not address the real reason behind the school attacks and just blames grudges or mental illness in the vaguest way possible.
However, psychological reasoning is not enough as the system is also a problem. China is notorious for tamping down the citizen's freedom of speech, the rule of law, tightening the bolts of repression in the country.
Every move is being monitored and the country took away the rights of the citizens to demonstrate, vote, report, tweet, or blog about the happenings in the country.
The injustice of the mentally ill and the repression of those who want to speak out contributes to the pent up anger of the citizens who were already in their tipping points. And unfortunately, it is easier to attack the vulnerable and innocent lives of children was their grief sends a message.
