Three people were killed and 15 others injured as a man went on a stabbing rampage inside a supermarket in Shanghai on Monday night. The 37-year-old suspect was swiftly arrested by Chinese police. The man, with the surname Lin, reportedly told the police that he had come to Shanghai to vent his anger “due to a personal economic dispute". According to the BBC report, the incident occurred at a Walmart in a shopping mall in Songjiang, a densely populated district in the city's southwest.
According to the Associated Press (AP), 18 people were sent to hospital for treatment, three of whom died. The others reportedly “did not sustain life-threatening wounds" and were believed to be out of danger.
BBC quoted Shi, who runs a jewellery store on the ground floor of the Ludu International Commercial Plaza, as saying that there was “blood everywhere” in the aftermath of the attack. He told BBC that dozens of firefighters and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) officers entered the mall and instructed people to evacuate.
The supermarket opened for business on Tuesday but there was additional security.
Spate Of Knife Attacks In China
While firearms are banned in China, the country has seen a spate of knife attacks in recent months.
Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being stabbed near his school in southern China. This follows another knife attack at a school bus stop for a Japanese school that killed a Chinese national who tried to stop the attacker and injured a Japanese mother and child, according to AP.
Earlier this year, a Chinese man stabbed four university instructors from the United States and a Chinese person who tried to intervene at a public park in Jilin. The four instructors from Cornell College were teaching at Beihua University. Their injuries were not critical.