Another police office dies from knife attack in Shanghai

An officer wounded in a knife attack at a police station in Shanghai has died, raising the death toll from the violent rampage to six, police said Wednesday.

Photo: Another police office dies from knife attack in Shanghai

The officer, who was not identified, died of his injuries at a hospital late Tuesday, according to a staffer at the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. He refused to give his name as is customary.

On Tuesday, a 28-year-old unemployed man stormed a police station in Shanghai and started attacking officers with a knife.

Five of them were fatally wounded, while another four officers and a guard were injured. Some had chest wounds and others had bloodied faces, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a witness surnamed Yi.

The man, only identified by his surname Yang, had been carrying a knife, a hammer, a mask, aerosol spray, and homemade explosives, according to a statement by the Shanghai police.

When he reached the gate of the police station, he lobbed eight Molotov cocktails at the entrance, injuring a security guard who tried to stop him, the statement said.

Then Yang made his way into the building, stabbing four officers he caught by surprise in the guard room. He then forced his way through to the 10th, 11th, and 21st floors of the building, wounding another five officers. He was finally captured by a team of special police on the 21st floor.

Police are still investigating his motive, the statement said.

Yang, who is from Beijing, initially told police he was seeking revenge after officers at the station in Shanghai's Zhabei district investigated him last year for allegedly stealing bicycles.

Violent crime is rare in China, where private gun ownership is virtually banned, although there have been scattered cases of revenge attacks.