Pressure mounts in China over attacks

TAIXING - A Chinese city shaken by one of three back-to-back attacks on schools stepped up security and urged its citizens to "trust the Government" a day after parents of the injured children protested outside a local hospital.

A dozen police and security guards patrolled the lobby of the Taixing city People's Hospital the morning after marching parents chanted "we want the truth", asked to see their children and demanded a better Government response to the crisis.

Photos and video posted online showed hundreds of people massed outside the hospital on Saturday, pushing so hard to get in they shattered a glass door.

The school attack in Taixing came when a 47-year-old unemployed man armed with an 20cm knife wounded 29 students aged 4 or 5 - five of them seriously - plus two teachers and a security guard.

City officials tried to ease fears in a mobile phone text message sent to citizens.

"No one has died, and all of the parents have seen their injured children," it said.

"Citizens please trust the Government, don't believe rumours," the text added.

A parent of one of the four children still in intensive care confirmed he and other parents had been able to see their children. Xin Feng, the father of a 4-year-old boy, said parents had no plans for further protests.

Xin had said a government employee was handing out compensation to families, but later said he had been mistaken and the money was from a private citizen.

"We don't want the government money. We just want the children to be okay," he said, adding parents also want a reasonable explanation from the Government of the attack.

"When I walked into the ICU this morning, my son recognised me but couldn't talk," Xin said. "He looked so helpless."

The anger and fear come after three classroom assaults in three days across China. The Government issued an urgent order for schools to tighten security, and armed police will patrol schools in the capital, Beijing, when classes resume tomorrow after the May Day holiday.

The attack in Taixing came a day after a 33-year-old former teacher broke into a primary school in the southern city of Leizhou and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife. The attacker had been on sick leave from another school since 2006 for mental health problems.

And a farmer used a motorcycle to break down the gate of a primary school in the eastern city of Weifang and struck five students with a hammer. He then poured petrol over his body and burned to death, Xinhua said.

Chinese schools have had five such attacks in just over a month - unusual in a country where extreme violence is comparatively rare and strict controls keep most people from owning guns.

Sociologists suspect the rampages - usually by lone, male attackers - could be copycat actions.

State media reports have largely shied away from why students have been targets.

- AP