6 wounded, assailant killed, in new China rampage

[May 17, 2010]  BEIJING (AP) -- A cleaver-wielding man attacked and wounded six women before jumping to his death, police said Monday, in the latest in a series of such rampages in China.

The attack follows five separate assaults by lone assailants against schoolchildren in recent weeks that have left 17 dead and more than 50 wounded.

According to a police news release, Sunday night's attack began around 7 p.m. when a 20-year-old man identified only by his surname, Xie, hacked at a woman outside a restaurant in the southern city of Foshan.

He then rushed into a crowded market and wounded five other women before climbing the stairs of a residential building and throwing himself off the fourth floor.

While Xie appeared to have deliberately targeted women, it was not immediately clear what triggered the attack.

Sociologists attribute the recent attacks mainly to a failure to diagnose and treat mental illness, rage and frustration among people who feel victimized by China's high-stress, fast-changing society.

At least three of the attackers in the early assaults had prior mental health histories and two committed suicide after the attacks. That included the killer in last week's assault on schoolchildren in Shaanxi province in which seven preschoolers and two adults were killed -- the deadliest single attack in the recent series.

The attackers have mostly been men in their 30s or 40s who used knives and hammers. Guns are tightly controlled and difficult to obtain in China.

[Associated Press]

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