Man with knife attacks Chinese nursery, killing three

Police in China’s Jiangxi province launched a manhunt for the masked man who killed three people, including children, and injured at least six others at a local kindergarten on Wednesday.

The suspect, 47-year-old Liu Xiaohui, was seen entering the Children’s Home, a private nursery school in Anfu County, wearing a baseball cap and mask around 10 a.m., reports The Times of London.

Witnesses said the man went on a rampage with a bladed weapon, attacking both children and adults inside.

Staff from a nearby hospital told a state-run news site that about ten children were being treated in its emergency department and that “some children had died.”

“I see five or six children, both girls and boys, and some of them had blood on them, and two teachers were sent to the ambulance with injuries,” a shopkeeper who works nearby told Hongxing News.

“We felt terrible when we saw children with blood.”

Police said in a statement that they were “making every effort to hunt down the suspect” and that the man had ditched his hat, mask and a bag. They did not release the ages of the victims.

Authorities in the city of Jian, which has jurisdiction over Anfu County, is offering 50,000 yuan ($7,400) for any information leading to his arrest.

A country where gun ownership is heavily restricted, China has recently experienced a string of knife attacks.

Four were wounded last month in a stabbing at a Shanghai hospital before the slasher was shot and killed by police, reports The Times. In April, a knife-wielding man killed two and wounded 16 when he attacked a nursery school in the southern city of Beiliu.