Two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack at a hospital in China

Beijing: At least two people were killed and 21 others injured in a knife attack at a hospital in China’s Yunnan province on Tuesday, local authorities said. This was the latest incident of mass stabbing in the country.

The attack occurred around 11:30 a.m. when a man attacked people with a knife at a local hospital in Zhenxiong county, the county public security bureau said.

The injured are being treated in hospital and the case is being investigated, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

It is not yet known whether police subdued the suspect, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

China, where private gun ownership is illegal for most civilians, has seen a spate of mass knife attacks in public places in recent years.

In August last year, two people were killed and seven others injured after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife in a residential neighborhood in Yunnan.

In July of that year, six people, including three children, were killed in a knife attack at a kindergarten in the southeastern province of Guangdong.

Located in northeast Yunnan, Zhenxiong County borders Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and was considered “poverty-stricken” until 2020.