Medical practitioners mourn death of intern after hospital attack

HARBIN/BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 1,000 medical practitioners in northeast China's Heilongjiang province gathered Tuesday afternoon to mourn the death of an intern killed in a hospital attack on Friday.

The memorial for Wang Hao, 28, was held at 3 p.m. at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University in the provincial capital Harbin.

Zhou Jin, president of the hospital, said at the memorial that Wang had just before the attack received admission to study a doctorate at a Hong Kong-based medical university.

Health Minister Chen Zhu issued a statement Tuesday, mourning the loss and calling for the murderer to be severely punished.

The incident occurred at 4:30 p.m. Friday when a patient allegedly attacked Wang and three other medical workers at the hospital with a knife.

The injuries of the other three were serious but not life threatening, according to local police.

Police captured the alleged attacker, a 17-year-old man named Li Mengnan, when he was receiving emergency treatment as he tried to kill himself following the attack.

Li was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a long-term disease that causes inflammation around the spinal vertebrae. He told the police that doctors at the hospital had a terrible attitude and "deliberately rejected" treating him. He said this was the motivation for his attack.