A wave of mass attacks has claimed dozens of lives in China in recent months

BEIJING – Dozens of people have been killed in a series of mass attacks in China over the past three months. Last Tuesday, primary school students were hit by a car as they arrived for classes.

The attacks can take two forms: drivers mowing down people on foot, or knife-wielding attackers stabbing multiple victims. China has strict restrictions on weapons and attacks with firearms are rare.

According to police reports, the attackers appear to be expressing anger and frustration over a personal matter. The victims are often unknown to them.

Such attacks are not new in China and have also targeted kindergartens and other schools in the past. The recent wave has attracted the attention of authorities and the public. Here you will find an overview of some recent events.

November 19: Vehicle hits students at the primary school gate

A small white SUV struck students arriving for class at Yong’an Elementary School in Changde, an inland city in China’s Hunan province. Several adults were also injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Guards and parents controlled the driver, Xinhua said. Authorities later issued a brief statement saying the 39-year-old driver had been arrested. Few details about the incident have been confirmed.

November 16: Sta

bbing kills eight at the vocational school

Eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a knife attack on the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing, about 160 kilometers west of Shanghai in eastern China.

The police have arrested a 21-year-old student. They said he failed his exams, could not graduate and was dissatisfied with his salary during an internship. He decided to vent his frustrations through the attack, according to a police statement.

November 11: Driver kills 35 people at sports complex

A man who authorities said was angry about his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in the city of Zhuhai in southern China, killing 35 people and injuring 43 others .

Police arrested the 62-year-old man, who they say was sitting in his car and trying to stab himself with a knife. Later he fell unconscious due to neck and other wounds. They said the man was unhappy about the split of financial assets during his divorce.

October 28: Five injured in knife attack near primary school

Five people, including three children, were injured in a knife attack near a prominent primary school in Beijing. The police have arrested a 50-year-old suspect. No motive was given.

Earlier in October, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being stabbed near his school in Shenzhen, a southern city bordering Hong Kong. That followed a knife attack in June on a Japanese woman and her child at a bus stop outside a Japanese school in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai.

September 30: Knife attack kills three in supermarket

A 37-year-old man is said to have killed three people and injured 15 others with a knife in a supermarket in Shanghai. Police said the man had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”

The attack took place on the eve of a weeklong national holiday in a suburb of Shanghai, China’s financial center.