This archive report was first published on 12 November 2019.
On November 11, 2019, a shocking incident occurred at a kindergarten in Kaiyuan city, Yunnan province, China. A 23-year-old man, identified as Kong, broke into the school by climbing a wall and sprayed sodium hydroxide at the children, leaving 51 of them and three teachers injured.
According to local authorities, the attack took place at 3:35 pm on Monday, and police arrested Kong less than an hour later. The victims were rushed to the hospital, with two of them suffering from severe symptoms.
The motive behind the attack was attributed to Kong's troubled past, including his parents' divorce during his childhood, which led to a 'pessimistic mentality and thoughts about retaliating against society.'
Violent attacks targeting schoolchildren are not uncommon in China, with several deadly incidents reported in recent years. In April 2018, a 28-year-old man killed nine middle-school students in one of the country's deadliest knife attacks, and in 2018, a knife-wielding woman injured 14 children at a kindergarten in Sichuan province.
