Japanese mother and child stabbed in China in front of school bus

Tokyo
CNN
—

A Japanese woman and her child were among three people stabbed by a man Monday in front of a school bus at a bus stop in eastern China, according to Japanese authorities.

A Chinese school bus worker was also seriously injured in the attack in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, an official with the Overseas Japanese Nationals Security Division of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN. Foreign Affairs.

The mother and child did not suffer life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital for treatment, the official said.

The Japanese consulate in nearby Shanghai said “a man, possibly Chinese” attacked the mother and child with a knife.

In a statement Tuesday, Suzhou police said they arrested a 52-year-old unemployed suspect, identified by his surname Zhou, at the scene.

A Chinese national who tried to stop the stabbing attack was seriously injured and was still fighting for his life, police said. One of the injured Japanese nationals has been released from hospital, police added.

“The investigation into the matter is ongoing and criminal behavior will be severely punished in accordance with the law and regulations,” the statement said.

China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed regret over the stabbing attacks and pledged to take effective measures to protect the safety of foreigners in the country.

“Such isolated incidents can occur in any country in the world,” spokesman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing.

Attacks on foreigners are rare in China, but Monday's stabbing was the second such incident this month in the powerful security state, after four instructors at a U.S. university were stabbed by a Chinese in a park in the city of Jilin, in the northeast of the country.

A Chinese tourist who tried to intervene during the June 10 attack was also stabbed, but no one was injured, according to police. The 55-year-old suspect in the Jilin attack was arrested but police have not revealed his motives.

In Suzhou, the attack took place Monday afternoon as the mother waited to pick up her child at a bus stop near a Japanese school, according to the Japanese official.

Two buses were at the bus stop at the time of the attack, a woman waiting at the scene to pick up her son told Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

She said she heard screaming near one of the buses, then saw a man, who appeared to be between 50 and 60 years old, grab a boy and swing at him while holding a knife, NHK reported.

The school bus comes from the Suzhou Japanese School, located less than a kilometer from the bus stop in an area where many Japanese nationals live, NHK said. The region is home to many manufacturing plants for Japanese companies.

The bus officer and parents present at the scene overpowered the attacker using an umbrella and a bag, according to NHK.

Stabbing attacks are not uncommon in China, where guns are tightly controlled. The country has faced a series of knife attacks in public places in recent years, particularly in schools and hospitals.

“Recently, stabbings have been reported in public places (parks, schools, subways, etc.) across China,” the Japanese consulate in Shanghai said in a statement, calling on Japanese nationals in the country to pay attention to their surroundings. by the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.

The attack was initially censored on Chinese social media, with search results for “Japanese school” on the X-like platform Weibo heavily filtered to only allow posts from official accounts on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday afternoon, censorship appeared to have eased following comments from China's Foreign Ministry on the incident.

China's strictly censored social media platforms have seen a rise in ultranationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment in recent years. Rooted in Japan's brutal invasion of China during World War II, Chinese public opinion towards Japan has ebbed and flowed – often linked to China's domestic politics and state of bilateral relations.

But as Chinese nationalism becomes more aggressive and intolerant under Xi Jinping's leadership, Japanese schools in China face growing criticism and suspicion. In recent months, some online posts and videos have called for the closure of Japanese schools in China, while others have accused the schools of being a breeding ground for spies.

Opened in 2005, Suzhou Japanese School offers six-year primary school and three-year high school programs, according to its website. Its rules state that students must be picked up by a parent or guardian on the school bus.

The school was closed Tuesday following the attack and security was increased at other Japanese schools across China, NHK reported.