BEIJING: Chinese police have released surveillance video of a stabbing spree that left 23 students wounded at an elementary school.
The video made public late Tuesday shows dozens of students running out of a gate in panic after a knife-wielding man stormed in, apparently having slashed at a girl along the way.
The video released by local police to state-run televison offers the first images from Friday's attack in Chenpeng village in central China. Police have arrested a suspect, Min Yongjun, on a charge of jeopardizing public security.
Citing local police, the official Xinhua News Agency said Min, driven by doomsday rumors, wanted to "do things to impress the world of his existence" before his death.
Xinhua said Min, 36, has epilepsy but that police believe the man was capable of self-control at the time of the stabbing spree.
In the surveillance video, a man in blue is seen running through an unguarded school gate while chasing after and slashing at a girl, who stumbles but — after the man leaves — stands up, picks up her school bag and walks out of the gate.
Then, dozens of students flee out of the gate before several men armed with brooms walk in. The man in blue later is seen being chased out of the school.
Deputy Principal Li Chuanbao told state-run China News that there were casualties on the stairs because students on higher floors left their classrooms and ran down to check out the stir.
"They didn't know there was a stabber out there," Li said.
Li told China News that the attacker stabbed seven first-graders on the first floor.
Xinhua said eight of the 23 students stabbed have been transferred to a hospital in a neighboring province for surgeries for facial wounds so they can have less noticeable scars.
China releases video of school stabbing
China releases video of school stabbing
Venezuela to debate historic amnesty bill for political prisoners
- Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro
CARACAS:Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro.
The legislation, which covers charges used to lock up dissidents under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, aims to turn the page on nearly three decades of state repression.
It was spearheaded by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who replaced Maduro after he was captured by US forces in Caracas last month and flown to New York to face trial.
Rodriguez took Maduro’s place with the consent of US President Donald Trump, provided she does Washington’s bidding on access to Venezuelan oil and expanding democratic freedoms.
She has already started releasing political prisoners ahead of the pending amnesty. More than 400 people have been released so far, according to rights group Foro Penal, but many more are still behind bars.
Rodriguez also ordered the closure of the notorious Helicoide prison in Caracas, which has been denounced as a torture center by the opposition and activists.
Lawmakers voted last week in favor of the amnesty bill in the first of two debates.
The second debate on Thursday coincides with Youth Day in Venezuela, which is traditionally marked by protests.
Students from the Central University of Venezuela, one of the country’s largest schools and home to criticism of Chavismo, called for a rally on campus.
Venezuela’s ruling party also announced a march in the capital Caracas.
’We deserve peace’
Venezuela’s attorney general said Wednesday that the amnesty — which is meant to clear the rap sheets of hundreds of people jailed for challenging the Maduro regime — must apply to both opposition and government figures.
He urged the United States to release Maduro and his wife, both in detention in New York.
“We deserve peace, and everything should be debated through dialogue,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab told AFP in an interview.
Delcy Rodriguez’s brother Jorge Rodriguez, who presides over the National Assembly, said last week that the law’s approval would trigger the release of all political prisoners.
“Once this law is approved, they will all be released the very same day,” he told prisoners’ families outside the notorious Zona 7 detention center in Caracas.
’We are all afraid’
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was one of the detainees granted early release.
But he was re-arrested less than 12 hours later and put under house arrest.
Authorities accused him of violating his parole after calling for elections during a visit to Helicoide prison, where he joined a demonstration with the families of political prisoners.
Guanipa is a close ally of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was in hiding for over a year before she fled the country to travel to Oslo to receive the award.
“We are all afraid, but we have to keep fighting so we can speak and live in peace,” Guanipa’s son told reporters outside his home in Maracaibo.
