BEIJING (Reuters) - A man burnt himself to death after injuring five children with a hammer at a kindergarten class, Chinese state media reported on Friday, in the third attack in three days on Chinese schoolchildren.
The attack in Weifang, in coastal Shandong province, came after 32 children were injured in a knife attack on Thursday in the Yangtze River Delta and was the fifth such attack in recent weeks.
The attacks come just as the Chinese government is tightening security before the gala opening of the World Expo in Shanghai, China's glitzy financial hub.
Two children were pulled away from the MAN (MAN.XE) after he poured gasoline and set himself on fire, Xinhua News Agency said. All five injured students were in stable condition, it added.
On Thursday, a 46-year-old salesman stabbed 29 children, two teachers and a security guard at a kindergarten in Taixing, Jiangsu Province, a few hours upriver from Shanghai.
His motivation was "to take revenge on society," Xinhua reported on Friday.
The number of attacks has led some experts to fear inciting copycats. They have also prompted public calls for more measures to protect students in a country where many couples only have one child.
On Wednesday, a former doctor was executed for killing eight school children in Fujian province in March. On the afternoon of his execution, a teacher stabbed 16 students and a teacher at a primary school in southern Guangdong province.
The Ministry of Education set up an experts panel this week to handle "emergency public incidents," while police sent guards to schools to ensure safety in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, local media reported on Friday.
(Reporting by Yu Le, Huang Yan and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ken Wills and Sugita Katyal)
