A disgruntled former worker of a Beijing primary school armed with a hammer attacked and injured 20 children, three of them seriously, officials said Tuesday, the latest such incident in China.
The attack at the Number One Primary School in Beijing's Xicheng district took place just around noon, media reports said.
The suspect, the school's former repair worker who was angry after he failed to pass his probation, hit the children's skulls one by one using a hammer, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a former school maintenance worker surnamed Liang as saying.
Police in the Xicheng district said in a statement on Weibo that they have detained the 49-year-old male suspect surnamed Jia.
Jia was a migrant worker from Heilongjiang province whose contract ended at the start of the year, and police suspect that the attack was motivated by the anger at having his employment terminated, the Post report said.
Several of the students were rushed to the intensive care unit of the nearby Xuanwu Hospital following the attack.
Three of the children have serious but non-life-threatening injuries, media reports quoted police as saying.
The children were attacked while they were doing exercise on the school's running track. The attacker was standing nearby. He was stopped by a Physical Education teacher, the Post report said.
Video footage posted on the social media showed dozens of angry parents demanding details from staff. They were repeatedly urged to stop filming by the head teacher.
A teacher said "a worker at our school attacked 20 students in a first-floor stairwell. It is not like what everyone is saying, he did not use a knife," the report said.
A doctor posted on social media: "The mayor today came to the hospital to wait with us while the children were being medically treated. We have paused several operations to save all the children".
A hospital bystander said: "Police have tightened security at Beijing Children's Hospital and Xuanwu Hospital. Nurses are rushing in and out of the operation rooms".
A man has been detained on suspicion of carrying out the attack, the Post report said.
Attacks on kindergarten schools and civilians in malls by disgruntled people have become common in China lately.
In January 2017, a farmer slashed and injured 12 children with a knife at a kindergarten in Youyi town, Pingxiang city. Four children were seriously injured while eight others received minor injuries.
The attacker was executed on Friday, the Supreme People's Court said Monday.
In October last year, a woman was detained on suspicion of stabbing 14 children at a kindergarten in Chongqing. In June, two children were stabbed to death outside a Shanghai kindergarten. Nine children died in a knife attack at a school in Shaanxi province in April.
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