Six people have been killed in a knife attack at a kindergarten in Lianjiang, located in China’s southeastern Guangdong province. 

According to an AFP report, the six people include three children, a teacher and two parents. 

The attack happened on Monday just as parents dropped their children off for summer classes. 

The police in the province have arrested a 25-year-old man in connection with the crime. They also call the incident a case of intentional assault, although they have not yet figured out a motive for the attack. 

Videos of the attack circulating on Chinese social media have sparked outrage and shock as people reacted to the gruesome incident. 

China has witnessed a series of knife attacks in recent years as firearms are prohibited in the country. 

According to the BBC, there have been 17 knife attacks in schools, colleges and universities since 2010. Ten of those happened between 2018 and 2023. 

The Monday Knife attack in Lianjiang, China, is the latest in a disturbing pattern of knife attacks in kindergarten schools in the country. 

In August last year, a knife-wielding assailant stormed a kindergarten in southeastern Jiangxi province, killing three people and wounding six others. 

In October 2018, 14 children were injured in a knife attack at a kindergarten in Chongqing, southwest China. 

Experts have noted that perpetrators of these crimes are mostly male and have linked the increase in such violence to a rising feeling of social deprivation amongst young men in China. 

Other factors that could increase violence are rising unemployment and an increasing disparity between China’s rich and poor. 

Chinese authorities have continued to beef up school security following these knife attacks to protect teachers and students. 

In 2021, the Chinese Education Ministry mandated emergency evacuation drills in schools in China.