Beijing man goes on stabbing spree in mall, one killed

A disgruntled knife-wielding man on Sunday went on a stabbing spree at a busy shopping mall in downtown Beijing, killing a woman and injuring 12 others, police said.

The attack happened around 1 pm at Joy City in the commercial area of Xidan, Xicheng District, police said.

A woman injured in the attack died at the hospital. Three men and nine women were injured in the attack. Their condition was not critical, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The police have caught the suspect and identified him as a 35-yearold man, surnamed Zhu.The suspect has claimed responsibility for the attack and said he was motivated by personal grievances, police officials said.

A witness who was dining at a restaurant on the fifth floor said that she saw a man suddenly took a knife out of his bag and started hacking people indiscriminately. Video footage circulated on the Internet showed blood spattered on the floor in part of the mall.

A chef at the restaurant said that he saw that one of the victims was injured in the neck.

Knife attacks by disgruntled people in public places and schools are common in China to highlight their grievances. Violent crime is rare in China compared with many other countries, but there has been a series of knife and axe attacks in recent years, many targeting children.