Officials: Former Doctor Stabs, Kills 8 Students Outside School in China

(March 23) -- A former doctor wielding a huge knife thrust into a crowd of students lining up before school in eastern China this morning, fatally stabbing eight children and wounding another five, officials said.

Chinese officials told state media police have arrested the 41-year-old alleged attacker, who used to be a doctor at a nearby community clinic before leaving his job last year. He has a history of mental problems, they said.

The man attacked a crowd of children lining up at 7:20 a.m. outside the Experimental School in Nanping, a city of about 3 million residents in China's eastern Fujian province. Passersby and school security guards jumped on the attacker and subdued him, and the owner of a nearby store called police.

The mother of one of the wounded students told China's state-run Xinhua news agency that her 12-year-old son is in critical condition in intensive care. "I hope he recovers soon," said Lu Yanping. "My mind went blank when my son's teacher called me at 8 a.m. saying he'd been stabbed."

The school, with more than 2,000 students, remains closed and the government is deploying counselors to the homes of students who witnessed the attack.

China has suffered a series of school attacks in recent years, which are often blamed on personal grudges or people with psychiatric problems, and have led to calls for improved school security.