Shanghai knife attack kills three, wounds 15 on eve of China’s national day

BEIJING – Three people were killed and 15 injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai on Sept 30, the eve of a week-long national day holiday, the latest in a series of stabbing incidents in major Chinese cities in 2024.

The victims were rushed to hospital for treatment, but three died. The other 15 did not sustain life-threatening wounds.

The assailant, a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin, was detained by police, who received a report of the incident at 9.47pm on Sept 30.

The police said the man went on the rampage in anger caused by a “personal financial dispute”.

The knife attack came one day before China’s national day “Golden Week”, when holiday travel is expected to surge.

Public stabbing incidents in the country have risen over the years, with the authorities often putting the blame on mental illness. Children at schools are a common target.

In September, a 10-year-old Japanese pupil was

fatally stabbed by an attacker

metres from his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

That incident, along with a

June knife attack

on two Japanese nationals in Suzhou, a major city in eastern China, has stoked security concerns among members of the Japanese community in China.

In May, a man killed eight people and wounded another person with a knife in the city of Xiaogan in central Hubei province.

In 2022, a man

went on a stabbing spree

at a major hospital in Shanghai, injuring 15 people. The man, who the authorities said was “resentful of society” after an investment fell through, was sentenced to death a year later. AFP, REUTERS