China reports 2 killed in vehicle, knife attack in Zhejiang

BEIJING – Authorities in eastern China said 2 people were killed and 16 wounded after a knife-wielding man drove a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians on Saturday night.

The suspected assailant, identified only by his surname, Wang, was apparently enraged by a “personal conflict” when he committed the attack, the Beilun district government in the Zhejiang province city of Ningbo city said in a statement on its microblog.

It said the case is under investigation and no other details were given.

The incident follows an attack last month in which 11 people were killed and 44 hospitalized after a man drove an SUV deliberately into people at a plaza in the central province of Hunan, before jumping out and attacking victims with a dagger and shovel.

The Hengyang city government said the suspect in that case had previous convictions for crimes including drug trafficking, theft and assault and, acting alone, had sought to “get revenge on society.”

Such attacks — generally blamed on mental illness, alienation from society or personal disputes — continue to occur despite China having one of the world’s most extensive domestic surveillance and security networks.

Many of the incidents have occurred at schools, including a chain of attacks in 2010 in which nearly 20 children were killed.

In June, a man used a kitchen knife to kill two children in Shanghai, and last year, eight people were killed when a man set off an explosion at the front gate of a kindergarten in eastern China as relatives gathered to pick up children.