20 Children Injured in Attack on Beijing School

20 Children Injured in Attack on Beijing School

Twenty Chinese children were injured after a hammer wielding maintenance worker attacked them inside their primary school in Beijing Tuesday, reports VOA News.

Officials in the citys Xicheng district say the 49-year old male suspect, surnamed Jai, was apprehended at the scene. In a statement, officials say Jai performed maintenance work at the school and that his contract was set to expire. The statement said the assailant attacked the students out of anger that his contract had not been renewed.

Officials say the wounded students were taken to a hospital for treatment. Three of the children suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Authorities say Tuesdays attack was the latest in a series of frightening incidents at schools across China in recent years. Nine middle-school students in northern China were killed last April by a knife-wielding man who claimed he had been bullied when he attended the school.

At least 12 schoolchildren were stabbed and wounded in an attack on their school in southern China in January 2017.