After a string of school killings in China that have claimed scores of lives Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, expressed his anger at the deaths and injuries and warned that perpetrators would receive no mercy.

An attack on Wednesday by a man with a cleaver in a school in northern China left seven children and two adults dead. Mr Wen said that his Government was “making serious efforts in tackling social tensions, settling disputes and improving local governments’ ability to smooth things out”. The youngest of the children to die in the latest attack was three years old.

“If criminals dare to do this kind of thing again,” Mr Wen told Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV, “we will act according to criminal law and firearms regulations, and without mercy.” The latest attack was the sixth on schoolchildren since March and prompted official vows to “strike hard” against the problem. Mr Wen said that he was distraught at the children’s deaths.

Police and private security guards were posted in front of primary schools around the capital and parents were asked to part with their children at school entrances rather than accompany them inside. Beijing police gave some schools knife-grabbing gloves, shepherd’s crooks and pepper spray to fend off would-be attackers. Private schools were expected to purchase the equipment themselves, a security expert at a private school catering mostly to expatriates in Beijing, said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...127361.ece

There are some real nutcases in this world.