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Woman killed and five others injured in latest China knife spree

18 May 2010 19:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A 35-year-old woman has been killed in the latest in a string of knife attacks in China, state media and police said today, APA reports quoting timesonline.com website.

Tang Changrong died on Monday of a wound to the neck sustained the previous evening at a market in the city of Foshan in Guangdong province.

She was the 18th knifing victim to die in recent weeks â€” most of them children â€” spreading fears for public safety in China, a country not known for violent crime.

The other five women victims of Sundayâ€™s attack by Xie Yulin, 20, were in stable condition in hospital, state media said.
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According to reports, Mr Xie entered numerous shops and restaurants at the marketplace at about 7pm, attacking the young women before climbing to the fourth storey of a nearby residential building and leaping to his death.

Though he appeared to have deliberately targeted women, it was not immediately clear what triggered the attack. A spokesman for the Foshan police declined to answer questions about the case.

The English-language Global Times newspaper said today that Mr Xie was enraged after his girlfriend rejected his marriage proposal.

Five attacks at schools and kindergartens over the past two months have taken the lives of 17 people, including 15 children, as well as wounding more than 50.

Police and schools across China have tightened security to prevent what experts believe are â€œcopycatâ€ attacks by individuals disgruntled with being left behind by decades economic growth and stressed by the mental impact of rapid changes in the country.

Sociologists attribute the recent attacks, mostly by men in their thirties or forties who used knives and hammers, mainly to a failure to diagnose and treat mental illness. At least three of the attackers had mental health histories.

In the school assaults, two of the attackers committed suicide, one was tried and executed and another was sentenced to death on Saturday.