Chinese police snipers kill hostage taker in school attack

Beijing, January 23

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Police in the Chinese city of Kunming shot dead a knife-wielding man who axed seven people outside a middle school before holding a boy hostage.

One of injured died later, state-run China Daily reported.

The 56-year-old man, surnamed Wang, on Friday axed seven people outside the gate of a middle school before taking the boy hostage in Wuhua district’s Kunming city. It was not clear if all victims were students.

Footage released by the police showed the middle-aged man was shot in the head by a sniper as he held a knife to the child’s neck at the entrance to the Experimental Middle School affiliated with Yunnan Normal University.

The man stabbed some of the students as they left before he took the boy hostage, leading to a stand-off with police, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

“This is not vengeance on society. I want to kill the police. I can only kill one,” the man was heard saying in the footage.

After he was killed by snipers, the boy, who appeared to be unharmed, stood up and ran as dozens of police rushed in. The attacker’s motive was unknown.

Knife attacks mainly targeting kindergarten and middle schools and unarmed civilians are a common occurrence in China. Such attacks were mostly attributed by police to disgruntled or mentally deranged people who have unaddressed grievances. PTI