School attacker sentenced to death

A local court on Saturday sentenced to death a man who attacked and injured 29 children and three adults last month at a Taixing township kindergarten.

Xu Yuyuan is the second to receive the death sentence following five separate attacks on children across the country in less than two months.

The Taizhou Intermediate People's Court found Xu guilty of "intentional homicide" after a half-day open trial, which was attended by some 300 people.

Xu, who was unemployed, admitted in court his motive behind the attack was to vent his rage against society. However, he appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe, as no one had died in the attack.

According to the Chinese penal code, one can be convicted of intentional homicide if he acts on his intent to kill.

Describing Xu as "savage", a victim's father said: "It (the punishment) cannot be anything other than death."

"He (Xu) can appeal, but I believe he will still get death," another victim's parent said. "He does not want to die, but we won't let him live."

Twenty-nine children and three adults were injured when Xu attacked them with a meat cleaver on April 29 at Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing township. No one died in the attack, but most of the victims suffered cuts to the head, neck or chest.

By Saturday, only one child remained in the intensive care unit of Taixing People's Hospital. The other children had been transferred to ordinary wards and nine had already been discharged, Zhu Guiming, a local government publicity official said.

"It is a miracle no one died," said Chen Rong, a prosecutor with Taizhou People's Procuratorate, who praised the police and the medical team.

A previous police investigation said Xu had been jobless after being fired from a local insurance firm in 2001.

The court found Xu carried out the attack after he lost some money gambling and failed business start-ups, in addition to other setbacks in his personal life.

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