Chemical attack hurts 51 children at Chinese school

A man sprayed a corrosive chemical inside a kindergarten in southwest China, injuring 51 students and three teachers, according to the official state news agency.

The attack, which took place Monday afternoon in the Yunnan province city of Kaiyuan, left two people with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to the Xinhua news service.

An hour after the attack, police detained a 23-year-old man, whose surname they gave as Kong. Authorities said he sprayed the chemical, called caustic soda, “as a revenge on society,” Xinhua reported.

Caustic soda, also known as sodium hydroxide, can be a colourless to white substance appearing as flakes, beads or a granular form, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The substance can cause irritation to the eyes, burns to the skin and a temporary loss of hair.

The episode is the latest instance of violence at Chinese schools this year. In September, a man attacked an elementary school in Hubei province in central China on the first day of the semester, killing at least eight students and wounding two others, police said.

In April, a man armed with a knife killed two students and injured two others at an elementary school in Hunan province in central China.

And in January, 20 children were injured after a man with a hammer attacked an elementary school in the Chinese capital, leaving three students seriously injured, authorities said at the time.

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