- Police say the suspect confessed to killing the students.
- Police say he returned to school to express his anger.
- Emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded.
BEIJING: At least eight people were killed and 17 others injured Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect – a former student – has been arrested, police said.
The police in Yixing said in a statement that the attack occurred in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing, Jiangsu province, confirming the toll.
Police said the suspect was a 21-year-old former student at the school, who was supposed to graduate this year, but failed his exams.
“He returned to school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect confessed.
In Yixing, police said that emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded and provide care for those affected by the attack.
Violent knife crime is common in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks resulting in such a large death toll are relatively rare.
Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and injured more than 40 others when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai.
There have been a series of other attacks in recent months.
In October, a man in Shanghai killed three people and injured 15 others in a knife attack in a supermarket.
The previous month, a Japanese schoolboy was stabbed to death in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.