Shanghai Walmart stabbing: Three killed and 15 hurt by man on knife rampage in Chinese supermarket

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At least three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack on Monday in a Walmart supermarket in Shanghai, China.

A 37-year-old man surnamed Lin was arrested at the scene as police responded to reports of a knife attack, the local Songjiang police branch said in a statement on Tuesday.

The attack happened on the eve of the week-long National Day holidays in a shopping mall in a suburban district southwest of Shanghai, China’s largest city and a major financial hub.

The suspect had come to Shanghai to “vent his anger due to a personal economic dispute”, police said.

At least 18 people were taken to hospital with injuries, out of which three later died.

The remaining injured people “did not sustain life-threatening wounds” and are not believed to be in danger, officials said.

Videos on Chinese social media showed a child was one of the victims of the stabbing spree along with several passers-by inside the supermarket. However, the videos and pictures appear to have been censored by the authorities on social media after the attack sparked an outpouring of anger.

It was the latest stabbing attack in China where firearms are banned. The country has seen a series of such rampages in recent months with several foreign nationals also injured or killed.

Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being stabbed near his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. This followed another knife attack at a school bus stop for a Japanese school in which a Chinese national who tried to save the child was killed.

In June, four US university instructors were attacked with a knife in a public park in the northeast city of Jilin.

In May, at least two people were killed and 21 injured after a stabbing attack at a hospital in south-west China.

The attack comes as China is marking the 75th year of Communist Party rule amid major economic challenges with no festivities announced for the occasion on Tuesday.

The world’s second largest economy is sluggish, missing its rather modest 5 per cent growth target. In July 2024, Chinese government data revealed GDP growth has declined below the government’s target.