Ax-wielding farmer kills 6 in China

Two children and four adults are dead after a man with an ax went on a rampage in the city of Gongyi, in central China.

According The New York Times, authorities in China indicated that the attack was carried out by Wang Hongbin, 30, a farmer with a history of mental illness. The two girls and four adults who were killed were apparently on their way to Tongxing Kindergarten on Wednesday morning.

“We used mops to fend off the ax-wielding man and waited for the police to come,” a civil servant named Cao Jianli told the state news agency Xinhua.

As the BBC reports, the Gongyi incident is the latest in a rash of attacks in China that have targeted schools and young children.

In one attack in March 2010 in the city of Ninping, community doctor Zheng Minsheng stabbed eight young children to death. He was executed for the crime one month later.

Two months later, seven children and two adults were hacked to death at a kindergarten in Hanzhong city by an attacker who later killed himself.

Last month eight children were hurt when an employee at a child-care centre for migrant workers in Shanghai slashed them with a knife.

According to the BBC, the attacks have prompted demands for heightened security at schools, and have sparked a debate about their cause. The conversation has focused on the stresses caused by social change and the lack of care for those in the country with mental problems.

The Times reports that Chinese authorities have "largely censored" news of the attacks, for fear of provoking copy-cats.