Death sentence in China for nursery knife attack

A court in eastern China yesterday sentenced an unemployed man to death for knifing 29 children and three adults with a meat cleaver at a kindergarten, leaving several of his victims badly injured.

Three hundred people were in court for a half-day open trial that convicted Xu Yuyuan of intentional homicide, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Twenty-nine children aged four or under and two teachers and a security guard were injured when Xu attacked them with the cleaver at Zhongxin nursery school in Taixing city on April 29.

Xu, who had been jobless for nine years, told the court his motive was to vent his rage against society, but he appealed against a death penalty, saying the punishment was too harsh because he had not killed anyone. A string of school attacks has shocked China in recent weeks. Police have been ordered to beef up security at school compounds and nearby residential communities.

Four of Xu's young victims were gravely hurt, according to official media, but there have been internet reports claiming a number of the children died in the attack, which occurred in Jiangsu province.

Xinhua said the court decided that even though Xu did not succeed in killing his victims, "his criminal motivation was extremely despicable, his means extremely cruel, his plot especially evil".

No one from the court could be contacted by AFP yesterday.

There have been five attacks on schools in China in less than two months, with 17 people - including 15 children - killed and more than 80 injured, according to previous Xinhua reports.