A man with a gun intruded upon an elementary school in Anhui province, China, and shot teachers and students, causing 16 injuries. The police are now hunting for the gunman.
According to the China’s Xinhua Net news report, at around 8:15a.m. on October 12, a 23-year-old man, Liu Shibing, broke into the Niutoushan Elementary School in Liudong Town, Guangde County of Anhui Province, with self-made guns. He randomly shot at the teachers and students from close range while they were in the middle of performing their morning exercises. The man then escaped after injuring 16 students, in addition to the school’s Principal, Chen Yubin, and a villager named Chen Yongfeng.
According to information provided by the Guangde County Committee Office, suspect Liu Shibing is a mental patient. Investigations showed that the weapons used by Liu Shibing were 6 self-made guns and the motive of the crime was most likely Liu’s hatred for, and jealousy towards, children and people of his age.
A teacher at the school told AFP that 16 students were injured, but fortunately there were no deaths. Among them, 7 were seriously injured and 9 suffered minor injuries. A bullet pierced the lung of one of the students, while several other students were hit in the head, and a few more students were shot in the hands.
The Xin'an Evening News reported that Zeng Yipeng, a 10-year-old third grade student who suffered minor injury, returned home that same evening after the doctor removed several shell fragments from his head. With his head wrapped in gauze, Zeng Yipeng said, “I was standing in the middle of the campus at the time. At first, I thought it was fireworks so I did not pay much attention, but I felt a pain rushing from my head. After the second gunshot, the students all panicked and began to run. I did not know why, but I followed. Some of them ran towards the classroom, several other students and I hid at the back garden. I did not realize that my head was bleeding until I ran into the classroom later. I knew I was hit in the head then.”
The seven students who suffered more serious injuries were transferred to the No. 98 Hospital in Huzhou City, Zhejiang province. The parents of two of the victims, who have just completed surgery, said that the doctors had removed six and two bullets from the two students, respectively.
Over the last two years, China has experienced frequent attacks against students, including on their school campuses, with the attackers usually wielding knives. One such instance occurred in August 2004 in which fifteen children and two teachers at the Beijing University No. 1 Children’s Hospital were injured by a supposedly mentally ill man with a knife. One of the children died from injuries.
