Deadly knife attack in east China leaves 5 dead, 15 injured

Authorities in the city of Anqing in Anhui province received a report Saturday afternoon that a man had stabbed pedestrians on the street with a knife, according to a statement by an Anqing district police station on its Weibo social media account.

The attacker was arrested and the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment, police said.

The reason for the attack was not immediately clear, and the case is under investigation.

A blood bank in Anqing called for people to donate to the injured, saying its blood reserves were running low, according to a local newspaper report.

Chinese law restricts the sale and possession of firearms, and mass attacks are generally carried out with knives or homemade explosives.

Perpetrators of similar attacks in the past have been described as mentally ill or bearing grudges against society.

Last December, a knife attack outside a sauna and bathhouse in northeastern China killed at least seven and injured seven others.

A school security guard wielding a knife injured at least 39 people at a kindergarten in the southern region of Guangxi in June last year. The culprit was sentenced to death.