BEIJING — All of 110 pounds, security guard Chen Xiu might not pack much heft, but he says no knife-wielding attackers will get past the iron gate where he stands guarding an elementary school in downtown Beijing.
“If they come in here, I’m ready to beat them up,” said Chen, 49, pumping the air with a bare fist. “You’ve to be brave to take on criminals.”
Despite his bravado, Chen said he was grateful that police were also patrolling the school.
The extra security has been added in the aftermath of a string of attacks against schoolchildren, some as young as 4, who have been stabbed, slashed, bludgeoned and most recently set on fire.
There have been five attacks in five provinces in little more than a month, three in the past three days alone. The latest came Friday when a 45-year-old farmer crashed through the front gate of an elementary school in Weifang, Shandong province, armed with an iron hammer and a jug of gasoline.
The man, identified as Wang Yonglai, attacked children with the hammer, then tried to immolate himself while clutching two children. Teachers pulled the children away from Wang, who set himself on fire and died of his injuries. Five injured children were reported in stable condition.
Few Chinese have guns, so the attacks have all involved knifes, cleavers and other common household tools. Many people think the assailants, mostly unemployed men, have been venting their frustration against social inequity, attacking the most defenseless element of society.
Throughout China, school districts were distributing police batons, pepper spray and metal sticks with hooks on the end to subdue attackers.
In the recent attacks, 10 people have been killed, dozens injured and millions more terrorized, although the Chinese news media have offered scant reporting on the attacks, trying to avoid public hysteria and to discourage copycats.
“We can’t understand why this is happening,” said Celine Li, 38, a elementary school teacher in Beijing and mother of a 12-year-old. “There are so many people in China. It is such a big place. You don’t know when some crazy person is going to jump out and attack you.”
Hao Bin, a Beijing psychiatrist affiliated with Peking University, said people should not try to read political motives into the attacks.
“I don’t think these people are terrorists,” Hao Bin said. “They are a people with psychological problems who weren’t able to get the professional help they need.”
A wave of attacks
Friday: A 45-year-old farmer burst through the front gate of an elementary school in Weifang, Shandong province, attacked children with a hammer, then tried to set himself on fire while holding onto two children.
Thursday: A 47-year-old unemployed man with an 8-inch knife wounded 29 students ages 4 and 5 — five of them seriously — plus two teachers and a security guard at a school in the eastern city of Taixing.
Wednesday: A 33-year-old former teacher broke into a primary school in the southern city of Leizhou and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife. The attacker had been on sick leave from another school since 2006 for mental-health problems.
The Associated Press
