A meat cleaver-wielding attacker in China hacked two people to death and left a further nine injured in a branch of Walmart yesterday, Associated Press reports .
Police arrested and detained a 30-year-old man in China's southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen in connection shortly after the incident, but his motive is still unclear.
Since guns aren't readily available in China, attacks using knives and homemade explosives are much more common. However, stricter regulations have recently been imposed on the sale of knives, following several high-profile attacks. Some of the most shocking attacks have targeted children at kindergartens and elementary schools.
Meat cleaver. Credit: Flickr/Michael Coghlan (Creative Commons)
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One of the most shocking such attacks took place only last month at a nursery, where eight people were killed by a makeshift explosive device. A 22-year-old man behind the attack was also killed at the scene.
On conducting a search of the killer's rented property, police found carvings on the walls of words such as 'kill', 'death' and 'extinct'. Officers also found materials used to make explosives in the property, and said that the man, who was surnamed Xu, had lived and worked close to the nursery.
It was also reported that the man had dropped out of school because of an autonomic nervous system disorder, the symptoms of which included depression, anxiety, dizziness and problems with basic bodily functions.
Incredibly, no children or teachers were among those injured in the attack.
Credit: PA
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Many nurseries in China have had to ramp up security recent years, after a spate of attacks in 2010 which saw 20 children killed in total. There was a national outcry after a man stabbed 29 schoolchildren and three teachers at a kindergarten in April 2010.
Xu Yuyuan, 47, was sentenced to death for the attack.
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported at the time that his motive was to 'vent his rage against society'.
Luckily, all 29 victims recovered fully from their injuries.
However, despite increased security measures, a knifeman still managed to injure seven pupils and a north China primary school last year.
Photos and videos, purportedly from the scene of the nursery explosion showed children and adults lying on the ground, covered in blood and with their clothes burnt and charred.
One survivor told a Chinese television outlet on that the nursery gates had opened but none of the toddlers had come out when the explosion happened.
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Sources: AP, BBC News, Daily Mail
Featured Image Credit: Flickr/Bill L (Creative Commons)