At least seven killed in knife attack in northeastern China

At least seven people were killed Sunday morning by a knife-wielding attacker in northeast China, according to state media.

Seven other people were also injured in the attack in the city of Kaiyuan, in Liaoning province, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A single suspect surnamed Yang has been arrested and police are investigating the case, the Kaiyuan municipal public security bureau said in a statement.

The police did not mention the motive of the attack, or details on the suspect or the casualties. CCTV reported that a police officer who helped subdue the suspect was among the injured.

A video posted by the state-run Beijing News on Chinese social media showed two police officers — one of them wielding a broom — confronting the suspect and tackling him to the ground.

Knife attacks in public are not uncommon in China.

In June, 37 children and two adults were injured by a knife attacker at an elementary school in the southwestern Guangxi region.

In October 2018, a woman wielding a kitchen knife slashed at least 14 children at a kindergarten in the central city of Chongqing.

Nine students were killed at a middle school in Shaanxi province in April 2018 by a 28-year-old man who was later sentenced to death.

In 2017, 11 students were injured after a man climbed over the wall of a kindergarten with a knife and began attacking them.

But perhaps the worst spate of stabbings occurred in 2010, which included a period of three consecutive days in which attackers targeted schools. China’s Ministry of Education responded to those events by ordering schools to strengthen security and bar strangers from entering campuses.  (CNN)