China: At least two dead, 21 injured in knife attack in hospital

At least two people have died and 21 others have been injured in a knife attack on a hospital in southwest China.

The stabbing attack occurred at 11:37 a.m. local time (03:37 GMT) at Zhenxiong People’s Hospital in Yunnan province, police said.

Images published by Chinese newspaper The Paper showed a man in black carrying knives in both hands in hospital.

Police said the suspect was from Poji town in Zhenxiong. It was unclear whether he was arrested.

Previous state media reports said 23 people were injured, but authorities have revised the number downward.

“The injured are currently being treated in hospital. The investigation is ongoing,” the police said in a statement.

Police vehicles and at least a dozen police officers were also seen outside the hospital in The Paper’s footage. The entrance to the hospital parking lot appeared to have been blocked off.

“The situation is still quite chaotic, they are still crunching the numbers. The police are working on it,” a resident told The Paper.

According to Chinese news agency Hongxing News, authorities asked residents and merchants in the neighborhood to “lock their doors” and “avoid contact with unknown people.”

Firearms are banned in China, but the country has seen a spate of knife attacks 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.