Shengshui Temple Kindergarten, Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, China

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

This morning children began arriving at the private Shengshui Temple Kindergarten around 8:20 when they were attacked by Wu Huanming, a 48-year-old male.  Upon his arrival, he used a meat cleaver to kill the school's administrator, Wu Hongying, and an unnamed student.  He then started chopping and hacking at 18 other students and adults.  Six students, and Wu Hongying's 80-year-old mother died at the hospital from their wounds.  Of the seven children killed, five were boys and two were girls. The wounds of the other eleven students were minor and non-life threatening.  Wu Huanming then returned to his home where he committed suicide. Although a motive was not immediately given, it is speculated that Wu Huanming went after Wu Hongying and his mother for not paying the rent they owed him for the school property. The area, in northwest China, is on the city's rural outskirts in a relatively poor part of the country.