CHINA: Victims of a stabbing attack which killed 33 people and injured over 130 in southwest China say they are lucky to be alive as citizens donate blood

Record ID: 354226

  • Title: CHINA: Victims of a stabbing attack which killed 33 people and injured over 130 in southwest China say they are lucky to be alive as citizens donate blood
  • Date: 2nd March 2014
  • Summary: KUNMING, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA (MARCH 2, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF KUNMING NUMBER ONE PEOPLE'S HOSPITAL PEOPLE WALKING BY ENTRANCE PEOPLE WALKING IN WARD REPORTERS SPEAKING TO 23-YEAR-OLD STUDENT VICTIM OF SATURDAY'S ATTACK WANG HONGLI WANG SPEAKING REPORTER WRITING REPORTERS SPEAKING TO WANG WANG SHOWING BANDAGE ON BACK OF HER HEAD DRIP (SOUNDBTE) (Mandarin) 23-YEAR
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,People
  • Reuters ID: LVADJ9LY56M2PZRA8HZKWA82E3AH
  • Story Text: Victims of a stabbing attack which resulted in the deaths of 33 people, including four assailants, and injured over 130 in southwest China said on Sunday (March 2) they were lucky to be alive.
    Patients with minor injuries were laid out on beds in the corridor of the Kunming Number One Hospital, a major hosptial in Kunming city, Yunnan province, where the attack took place on Saturday (March 1) night.
    Twenty-three-year-old student Wang Hongli lay in bed with a her head shaved and a bandage held to the back of her scalp with gauze.
    She was slashed once in the back of the head, but did not sustain serious damage.
    "We were returning tickets and were third in line, and suddenly a lot of people ran towards the main hall. We didn't know what was going on, but the people in front knelt down and we saw two people. One of them had a knife and ran towards us and just started stabbing wildly," she said.
    Wang said she did not see her attacker's face, but that he was tall, thin and wearing a white shirt.
    Thirty-one-year-old Hua Yangsheng was knocked over by the running crowd and stabbed once, also in the back of the head.
    "I feel pretty lucky to have been stabbed only once and be OK. Because when I walked out of there I saw three or four people lying there, lying there not moving," he said.
    Nearby, Kunming residents gave blood at a mobile blood bank in a busy city square.
    The bank normally receives 20 to 30 donations on a given Sunday, but the manager said they had received 100 pouches already by mid-afternoon local time.
    They were extending their usual closing time of 8pm (1200 GMT) to accommodate the crowd outside the unit.
    Twenty-year-old sports centre worker Wang Yansheng said donating made him feel like he was helping.
    "When I heard the news yesterday I felt, honestly, that what they had done was extremely wrong. We can't help in a big way, but I think I will feel a bit better, more at ease, if I can help in a small way," he said.
    China has blamed militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang for the attack.
    Police shot dead four of the attackers and detained one, Xinhua said, while approximate five others are on the run. It initially said five of the attackers had been shot dead.
    The attack comes at a sensitive time as China gears up for the annual meeting of parliament, which opens in Beijing on Wednesday and is normally accompanied by a tightening of security across the country.
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