Five injured in knife attack in Beijing, including three children

Five injured people, including three children, were rushed to hospital following a knife attack at a prestigious primary school in the Chinese capital Beijing.

It is understood the knife attack took place outside the school gates, with five people rushed to hospital as passers-by tried to intervene.

Three children were hospitalized, but none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

The attack took place in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district in mid-afternoon, with a 50-year-old man arrested on the spot.

The man, surnamed Tang, is now being investigated by police.

Images circulating on social media show two school-age children on the ground.

Images from the scene also showed a man, his face covered in blood, being held to the ground.

There have been several knife attacks in China this year, some involving school-age children.

Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being attacked with a knife near his school in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Another attack in June on a school bus stop outside a Japanese school in Suzhou injured a woman and her child.

A Chinese woman who tried to intervene was killed.

In early October, three people were killed and fifteen others injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai.

China imposes strict restrictions on private gun ownership, making knives and homemade explosives among the most common weapons.

The investigation into the latest attack continues.