BEIJING – Two people died and 21 were wounded after a man went on a stabbing spree at a hospital in south-west China on May 7, local officials said.

“A knife attack occurred at the Chengnan Hospital in Zhenxiong County, which resulted in two deaths and 21 injuries,” a statement on the county’s official WeChat account said.

The suspect – a man from a nearby village – is under investigation, the authorities said.

The wounded were being treated in hospital, they added.

Images published by the state-run news site The Paper appeared to show a man pointing a knife at another man wielding a stick in a hospital lobby, and police officers arriving at the scene.

Mass violent crime is rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of stabbings in recent years.

In August 2023 in Yunnan, two people died and seven others were wounded after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife.

The month before that, six people were killed and one wounded in a kindergarten stabbing in southern China’s Guangdong province.

And in August 2022, three people were killed and six wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in south-east China’s Jiangxi province. AFP