What’s new: A suspect was arrested in eastern China’s Jiangsu province after a knife attack at a bus stop left three people injured, including a Japanese woman and her child, according to police.
The attack happened on Monday afternoon at a bus stop in Suzhou city, near Shanghai. A man stabbed the woman and her son while they were waiting for a school bus. A Chinese woman on the bus who tried to block the attacker was critically injured, Suzhou police said.
The suspect, a 52-year-old unemployed man surnamed Zhou, was detained at the scene, police said. An investigation is underway.
The injuries to the Japanese mother and boy were non-life threatening, and the Chinese woman was being treated at a hospital, police said.
The context: China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed regret over the stabbing and said the incident appeared to be an isolated event.
“It is a regrettable incident,” the ministry’s spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing. “China will continue to take effective measures to protect the safety of all foreigners in China.”
Kyodo News cited an official of the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai as saying there was no indication the suspect targeted Japanese nationals. Japan’s Embassy in Beijing, meanwhile, warned Japanese nationals to be on alert.
Earlier this month, four teachers from an American college were stabbed while walking in a park in Jilin city in Northeast China. A suspect was arrested shortly after.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
