n assailant stabbed and wounded a student at a Japanese school in south China on Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry said, the second such attack involving Japanese educational facilities in the country in recent months.
“A 10-year-old student of a Japanese school in Shenzhen was stabbed by a man about 200 metres from the school gate,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
The pupil was immediately taken to hospital and the assailant arrested on the spot, he said.
A police report from a district in Shenzhen that has a Japanese school said an attack on a child took place about 8 am. The suspected assailant was surnamed Zhong and aged 44, it said, but did it did not give a motive.
Neither the foreign ministry spokesperson nor the police report stated the victim’s nationality but Japanese media said the student was a Japanese boy.
“The case is still under investigation. China will continue to take effective measures to protect the safety of all foreigners in the country,” Lin said.
This incident follows a similar one in June, when a man attacked a bus used by a Japanese school in the eastern city of Suzhou, resulting in the death of a Chinese national who tried to shield a Japanese mother and her child from the assailant.
Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya said Tokyo requested China to prevent such an attack happening again and to share detailed information on the issue.
Japan also sent officials to the area to provide support.
“Japan will continue to work closely with the Chinese authorities and make every effort to ensure the safety of its overseas nationals,” he told a press conference.
Wednesday marks the 93rd anniversary of the Mukden Incident, a “false flag” event staged by the Japanese military that triggered its invasion of its neighbour. Some 14 million Chinese people died and 100 million more were made refugees in the war that followed, historians estimate.