11 wounded in central China knife attack

A man with a history of mental illness wounded 11 people with a knife after attacking random pedestrians in central China, local authorities said yesterday. The suspect, a 33-year-old man named Guo Kaibin, is already in police custody, according to a social media notice posted by police in Ji’an, a city in central Jiangxi province. Citing Guo’s family, local authorities said that the attacker had a history of mental illness.

While none of the injuries were life-threatening, those attacked included auxiliary police and students. Victims were receiving medical treatment and an investigation was underway, said local police. Earlier this month a man who suspected his wife of committing adultery stabbed eight people to death and injured seven others in a village in the northwest province of Gansu.

Last August six people were killed after a man went on a rampage in southern China, stabbing his girlfriend and her relatives before ramming a car into pedestrians and attacking passers-by. And in February a knife-wielding man motivated by personal grievances killed a woman and injured 12 others in a busy Beijing shopping mall -- a rare act of violence in the heavily policed capital.

Attacks have also targeted schoolchildren in the past, forcing authorities to increase security around schools. In April, a knife-wielding man killed nine middle school children and injured at least 10 others in northern China.