Children killed in a kindergarten in Hanzhong
Six children and a teacher stabbed to death, another 20 wounded. The murderer then committed suicide. It is the fifth case of violence against children in two months. Local authorities suggest increased security outside and inside schools and see these as isolated cases. Bloggers and commentators put the blame on the social gap, poverty, injustice, lack of space for people to express their frustrations.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Six children and one teacher were killed and 20 were wounded in a Shaanxi nursery school. This attack is the fifth onslaught towards children and students in less than two months in spite of promises to increase patrols and checks inside and outside of schools.

The serious accident occurred this morning at 8 am in a kindergarten in the county of Nanzheng (Hanzhong). The injured children are now hospitalized. According to local authorities, the murderer was killed.  Similar attacks on children and pupils have increased public fear that violence against children can become a kind of model.

On April 30 a farmer in Shandong attacked children with a hammer, injuring five and then setting himself on fire. The day before a man with a knife, wounded 29 children and three adults in the city of Taixing (Jiangsu). In the same week a 33 year-old former teacher, with mental health problems, wounded with a knife 15 students and a teacher in Guangdong. In March, a doctor, frustrated because his girlfriend left him, killed eight children and wounded five others in Fujian. The man has been sentenced to death and his sentence was carried out quickly.

On 7 May, the Ministry of Public Security has sent groups to verify the situation to 18 different locations. Previously the authorities have said that they would ensure greater security in schools, controlling access points and making sure people who have mental problems are kept at a distance.

The most likely hypothesis is that the murderers, from the government point of view, are people who are mentally unstable. But of all the violence of recent months, only one of the assassins was considered as much.

Commentators and bloggers in China argue that the deeper reason for these attacks is the anger and frustration of people who can not find another way to express their anguish than attacking the most defenseless.

The growing gap between rich and poor, lack of social safety nets, the rapid economic development at the expense of justice are among the cases cited that lead to such violence.