Beijing: Six people have been sacked over their "improper handling" of an attack on a school in central China last week that left 23 children and an elderly woman injured.
According to Zhang Zhifeng, deputy head of Guangshan county`s discipline inspection authority, surveillance camera footage showed that when the attack began, no teachers or security guards appeared, and the knife-wielding Min Yongjun managed to make it all the way to the third floor of the school building.
The local government sacked six officials holding them responsible for the "improper handling" of the knife attack, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The sacked officials included two school principals, two police officers, a township safety official and a county education department director.
Min, 36, who was stated to be an epileptic patient affected by doomsday rumours said he also believed such an attack would enable him to appear on television.
"I learned from the media two years ago that killing children would get me on TV," Min confessed to police, state run Global Times reported.
Min fist attacked his parents later burst into an elderly woman`s house near the elementary school of Chenpeng village in Guangshan.
During a struggle with the woman, Min stabbed her with a kitchen knife he picked up in the house.
Believing that he had killed the woman, Min rushed to the school and started attacking the children, according to a report in state run Global Times.
Ouyang Mingxing, a deputy director of Guangshan`s public security bureau, told the daily that though Min suffers from epilepsy, he was fully aware of what he was doing during the attack.
PTI
