CNN
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At least two people were killed and 21 more injured in a knife attack at a hospital in southwestern China’s Yunnan province on Tuesday, local authorities said.
The attack, which Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency described as a “violent incident”, occurred at a local hospital in Zhenxiong county, the news agency said, adding that authorities were gathering further information.
The county Department of Public Safety said in a separate statement that it had identified a male suspect from a town in the county. An investigation into the attack, which occurred at Seongnam Hospital just before noon, is underway, the statement said.
“Videos from the scene also show the suspect being arrested by police.” [nearby] Wellness Center,” Guizhou TV reported earlier in the day.
Authorities have not yet confirmed whether the arrested suspect is the attacker.
Witnesses interviewed by Chinese state media outlet The Paper said the situation remained chaotic as authorities worked to understand the situation.
China, where private gun ownership is illegal for most civilians, has seen a spate of mass stabbings in public places in recent years.
Last year, six people were killed and one injured in an early morning knife attack outside a kindergarten in southern China’s Guangdong province. In 2020, there was a knife attack at an elementary school in southern Guangxi, injuring 37 children and two adults; in 2022, there was also a knife attack at a kindergarten, in eastern Jiangxi province, where three people were killed; Six people were injured.
Yunnan province was also the site of a 2014 knife attack at a train station in Kunming, the provincial capital, in which multiple attackers killed 33 people and injured 133 others. Authorities blamed the attack on terrorists in northwestern Xinjiang.
Hospital violence is not unheard of in China, where medical professionals have a history of facing assaults from patients and their families over concerns about high costs and standard of care.
