School shooting suspect detained
By Guo Nei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-15 06:55

The man suspected of shooting 16 schoolchildren was returned to Anhui Province police on Friday following his arrest by Beijing police, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

Jiang Yan, injured in a school shooting , receives treatment at a hospital in Guangde County, East China's Anhui Province, October 14, 2005. A man shot and injured 16 pupils during their morning exercises in the schoolyard of the Niutoushan Primary School in Guangde County. [Newsphoto]

Liu Shibing, 33, was reported to have attacked a village primary school with six home-made rifles on Wednesday morning.

He shot and injured 16 pupils during their morning exercises in the schoolyard of the Niutoushan Primary School in Guangde County, East China's Anhui Province.

All seven children who were in a serious condition in hospital were reported to be stable on Friday. One boy, underwent surgery to have a bullet removed from his lung and has begun to recover.

The school's headmaster and a man who tried to stop the shooting were also hurt in the attack.

Chen Yongfeng, the man who tried to stop the attack, was still in the county hospital with more than 10 stitches in his head.

More than 100 policemen were dispatched to search for the attacker in a nearby village and woods.

Liu somehow made his way to Beijing and was spotted outside the building of China Central Television, where he was quickly detained.

Police declined to give more details about how Liu was discovered, nor did they offer any information about any possible motive for the shooting.

Liu's fellow villagers said he was unemployed and unmarried, had served a two-year jail sentence and had a mental disorder.

Villagers also told Xinhua that Liu set fire to his mother's house two years ago because she refused to give him money for cigarettes. They said that he has expressed his jealousy of other people who have children on many occasions.

Nine other students shot in the incident were treated at the hospital for minor wounds and released the same day.

School officials, who sent the rest of the students home after the shooting, said classes would resume on Monday.