Liu HONGWEN

Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Mentally ill - Elementary school attack - School teacher
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: September 30, 2004
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: 1976
Victims profile: Four children
Method of murder: Hacked to death with a meat cleaver
Location: Guangyi Township, Hunan Province, China
Status: Found not guilty by reason of insanity due to schizophrenia

September 30, 2004 – Chenzhou, China – Liu Hongwen – 4 dead – 12 Injured

Liu Hongwen, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, killed four children with a knife in a grade one class at a school in Chenzhou and wounded nine other children and three teachers, before taking 65 students hostage. After negotiations with a county government official he surrendered to police. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity due to schizophrenia.

Four killed in teacher's meat cleaver attack

Iol.co.za

October 7, 2004

Beijing - A Chinese primary schoolteacher with a history of mental illness attacked a class of children with a meat cleaver, killing four and wounding 16 students and teachers, state press reported on Thursday.

Liu Hongwen, 28, is accused of the attacks at the Guangyi Township Centre Elementary School in Linwu county in central Hunan province on September 30, the Beijing News reported.

It said education authorities refused immediately to disclose the killings.

It was the fourth such school attack in China during the last two months.

According to the paper, Liu entered a classroom and began attacking the children before fleeing to other classrooms where he continued his rampage which included assaults on at least four teachers.

Liu had a history of mental illness and had only been employed at the school for one year, it said. Families of the four victims were each immediately given 77 000 yuan (about R60 ) in compensation by the school, it said.

In other recent school attacks, a knife-wielding man stabbed 25 children and kidnapped a nine-year-old girl at a primary school in east China's Shandong province on September 20.

In a September 11 attack a man carrying home-made explosives and gasoline slashed 28 children with a knife at a day care centre in the eastern city of Suzhou.

Another attack occurred on August 4 in Beijing when a mentally ill caretaker killed one child and injured 17 others in a knife attack at a kindergarten. - Sapa-AFP.