Man stabs eight people to death in China

Sun, May 09, 2010
AFP

Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20100509-215062.html


BEIJING - A man stabbed to death eight people, including three family members, in eastern China, state media quoted police as saying Sunday, the latest in a spate of attacks that have shocked the nation.

The suspect Zhou Yezhong killed his mother, wife, daughter, four neighbours and one migrant worker with a knife at about 6:00 pm Saturday (1000 GMT) in Chengyuan village, Badu Township, in Jiangxi province, Xinhua news agency said.

He was caught at about 7:50 pm by police and an investigation is under way.


Cities around China have taken preventative measures following a series of attacks on children.

On April 30, a farmer armed with a hammer injured five children and a teacher at a primary school in the eastern province of Shandong before setting himself on fire.

A day earlier, a jobless man apparently angry over a series of personal and professional setbacks slashed 29 children and three adults at a kindergarten in the eastern city of Taixing.

That attack came a day after a 33-year-old teacher placed on sick leave for mental problems injured 15 students and a teacher in a knife attack at a primary school in southern China's Guangdong province.

And on the same day, authorities in Fujian province in the southeast executed a former doctor for stabbing to death eight children and injuring five others in March in a fit of rage after he broke up with his girlfriend.

The attacks underscore how China -- which has enjoyed lower violent crime rates than the West -- faces a growing public safety threat from disgruntled individuals amid rising mental illness rates and looser social controls.

Studies have cited a rise in mental disorders, some linked to stress as society becomes more fast-paced and old communist-era supports were scrapped.

A study last year estimated that 173 million adults in China have some type of mental disorder -- 91 percent of whom had never received professional help.


How i feel:

After reading this article, i feel terrible. It saddens me to know that innocent people in other parts of the world are killed and worse, in civilised places such as - school. I also feel relieved that i live in a country with a stricter security system. I think the man who stabbed to death eight people, including three family members must have some mental illness/disorder. Normal people wouldn't have the guts to stab their own mankind, needless to say, their loved ones? Their flesh and blood? Their own children? Therefore, i think that the man should not be blamed. Even if the man is perfectly healthy, there must be some internal reasons or conflicts that cause the rashness of this man to murder his kins.

As for other cases such as the jobless man, he has no right to harm kindergarten children just because of some personal setbacks. And for the case of the former doctor who stabbed eight children to death and injured five others, he deserves to be executed. We understand that he had every right to break down after he broke up with his girlfriend, but not to the extend of hurting others.

I feel bitter and heartbroken for the family members of the innocent deaths and think that people with mental disorder should be brought to seek professional help before they start harming people.


Still editing,
KAHMIN.