Sixteen children injured in China school shooting (AFP) Updated: 2005-10-13 16:20
A man wielding up to five homemade hand guns injured 16 children after
opening fire in a primary school in East China' Anhui province, witnesses and
state press said.
The man entered the Niutoushan primary school in Liudong township Wednesday
morning and began firing his primitive guns as children did their morning
exercises in the school yard, Xinhua news agency said.
He then fled the scene and remains at large, it said.
"Sixteen children were injured, but none of them are in danger of losing
their lives," a teacher at the school told AFP Thursday, declining to identify
herself.
"Nine were lightly injured and seven seriously injured. One student was shot
through the lung, some were hit in the head and others in the hands," she said.
According to the local Xinan Evening News, doctors removed six bullets from
one student and two from another.
Officials at the local hospital refused to comment on the condition of the
injured students.
The teacher identified the main suspect as Liu Shibing, 34, a local who was
known to the teachers at the school. Liu had a previous criminal record and
appeared to have mental problems, she said.
The Xinan news said the attacker had left some of his guns on the ground near
the school gate and had returned to retrieve the weapons to renew his attack
when a worker at the school tried to stop him.
After scuffling with the worker, the attacker picked up his guns and fled the
scene, it said.
|