Chinese Man Who Murdered Schoolchildren Executed By Firing Squad

A Chinese man who killed nine schoolchildren and injured many more has been executed by firing squad, according to a court.

He was convicted of intentional homicide at the Yulin Intermediate Court and sentenced to death by shooting in July. That sentence has now been carried out.

Zewei is thought to have been bullied during his time as a pupil at Number Three Middle School and harboured a deep resentment that eventually led to him committing the brutal assault on the current crop of students at the school.

He is thought to have bought several knives online before bringing three of them to the school and running at students as they left, according to a statement from the court.

That statement also said that the nature of his crimes warranted the use of the death penalty. They said: "The goal of the crime was clear, the murderer's methods were despicable, and the consequences were extremely grave."

Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Zewei's sentence was carried out at an execution ground in Mizhi County.

The court said that Zewei had not appealed against his sentence, and that the application of a death sentence had been approved after review by the Shaanxi High People's Court and the Supreme Court of China.

This latest report follows several instances of the death penalty being used on high profile criminals.

Just under a week ago a nanny who deliberately burned out the house of the family that employed her, killing the whole family of four, was executed in Hangzhou.

Thirty-five-year-old Mo Huanjing was found guilty and sentenced to death for theft and arson by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang Province, Eastern China.

Back in June, two well-known drug dealers also suffered the same fate after being found guilty. In this case the sentence was given on a sports ground in front of hundreds of people, including many young students.

In this case the sentence was carried out immediately after the sentence. The young students who were present are thought to have been brought by their school to show them justice in action, as well as to act against a deterrent against them becoming involved in drug-related crime.