Liu Hongwen, a 28-year-old primary school teacher,
killed four children with a knife in a grade one class at a school in
Chenzhou and wounded nine other children and three teachers, before
taking 65 students hostage. After negotiations with a county
government official he surrendered to police. He was later found not
guilty by reason of insanity due to schizophrenia.
Four killed in teacher's meat cleaver attack
Iol.co.za
October 7, 2004
Beijing - A Chinese primary
schoolteacher with a history of mental illness attacked a class of
children with a meat cleaver, killing four and wounding 16 students
and teachers, state press reported on Thursday.
Liu Hongwen, 28, is accused
of the attacks at the Guangyi Township Centre Elementary School in
Linwu county in central Hunan province on September 30, the Beijing
News reported.
It said education authorities
refused immediately to disclose the killings.
It was the fourth such school
attack in China during the last two months.
According to the paper, Liu
entered a classroom and began attacking the children before fleeing to
other classrooms where he continued his rampage which included
assaults on at least four teachers.
Liu had a history of mental
illness and had only been employed at the school for one year, it said.
Families of the four victims were each immediately given 77 000 yuan (about
R60 ) in compensation by the school, it said.
In other recent school
attacks, a knife-wielding man stabbed 25 children and kidnapped a nine-year-old
girl at a primary school in east China's Shandong province on
September 20.
In a September 11 attack a
man carrying home-made explosives and gasoline slashed 28 children
with a knife at a day care centre in the eastern city of Suzhou.
Another attack occurred on
August 4 in Beijing when a mentally ill caretaker killed one child and
injured 17 others in a knife attack at a kindergarten. - Sapa-AFP.
