Five children hurt in fresh attack on school in China

Five young children have been hurt at a school in north-eastern China after a man attacked them with a hammer before killing himself.

It was the third such incident in China in as many days.
The man, said to be a local farmer, grabbed two children before setting himself on fire at the pre-school in Shandong province's Weifang city.



The children were pulled to safety, and all five - plus an injured teacher - were said to be stable in hospital.
China is reeling from a spate of apparent copy-cat attacks in schools.


On Thursday, 28 children - most of them aged around four - and three adults were attacked by an unemployed man wielding a knife at a nursery school in Jiangsu province, eastern China. Five of the children were taken to hospital in a critical condition.

And a day earlier, some 15 pupils and a teacher were wounded by a former teacher - who was on sick leave - at their primary school in Guangdong province.


Earlier on Wednesday, a doctor convicted of stabbing eight children to death in Fujian province in March was executed.


Friday's attacker was a local farmer identified as Wang Yonglai, Xinhua news agency reports.

He used a motorcycle to break down the gates in to Shangzhuang primary school, striking a teacher who tried to stop him and then turning the hammer on the children.

He grabbed two of the children before dousing himself in petrol and setting himself alight. Teachers seized the two children from him in time.

The motive of the attack is not yet known.
The attacks are unsettling in a country where such violent attacks are rare.
Since a spate of attacks in 2004, many schools in China have employed professional guards but the latest incidents have led to public calls for increased security in schools.

The education ministry ordered all schools to upgrade their security facilities earlier this month, as well as teach students about safety and ensure young children are escorted home, state media has reported.

But such measures are expensive, says our correspondent, and in reality there is little that can be done to prevent such acts of violence.

The incidents have also sparked a debate about the motives of the killers, with some suggesting that rapid social change and growing unemployment has led to an increase in psychiatric illnesses.

Spectators hurt by waves at US surfing contest

Thirteen spectators at a leading surfing contest in California have been hurt, some seriously, after big waves hit the seawall they were standing on.

Two 6m (20ft) walls of water crashed into the breakwater at Mavericks Beach, destroying scaffolding and sweeping dozens of people onto the rocks below.

The most serious injuries involved broken bones, emergency personnel said.

After the incident, one stretch of the beach was evacuated and the main viewing area was closed to newcomers.

Hundreds of people nevertheless remained to watch South African Chris Bertish win the $50,000 (£32,000) first prize.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Scott Jalbert said firefighters had been on the way to clear parts of the beach because of the potential danger for spectators, but had arrived too late.

He said a couple of hundred people had been on the seawall at the southern tip of Mavericks Beach when the waves struck.

"Nobody was swept away into the water. They were just swept onto the beach area pretty hard," he told the Associated Press. "It's pretty rocky."

"It's a force of nature that can't be predicted," he added.

An injured spectator, Pamela Massette, said the massive waves "just came out of nowhere and wiped us all out".

'Came out of nowhere'

The Mavericks Surf Contest is the most lucrative big-wave contest in the world, but is only held when conditions are ideal, such as on Saturday. Some of the waves were reportedly 12m (40ft) high.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Scott Jalbert said firefighters had been on the way to clear parts of the beach because of the potential danger for spectators, but had arrived too late.

He said a couple of hundred people had been on the seawall at the southern tip of Mavericks Beach when the waves struck.

"Nobody was swept away into the water. They were just swept onto the beach area pretty hard," he told the Associated Press. "It's pretty rocky."

"It's a force of nature that can't be predicted," he added.

An injured spectator, Pamela Massette, said the massive waves "just came out of nowhere and wiped us all out".

Man hurt at Stoke City football match dies

A man who was injured during a Premier League football match at Stoke City has died in hospital.

Police were alerted to an incident in a concourse of the Britannia Stadium's south stand which housed Blackburn fans just after 1600 GMT on Saturday.

The 30-year-old fan, who was thought to have been hit on the head with a bin, was found unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he later died.

A 25-year-old man from Preston has been arrested over the incident.

Police inquiries

Staffordshire Police said the injured man was initially treated at the scene for a head injury and cardiac arrest by staff from West Midlands Ambulance Service and St John Ambulance.

The fan was resuscitated at the scene and then taken to hospital.

A police spokesman said: "A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at 1.55am this morning at University Hospital North Staffordshire.

"The circumstances are being fully investigated and a 25-year-old man remains in custody and is helping police with their inquiries."

Ch Insp Adrian Roberts, match commander at the game which saw Stoke beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0, said there were just over 1,300 Blackburn fans at the game, and no Stoke fans were involved in the incident.