BEIJING — Extra police and security staff stood guard Tuesday as nervous parents dropped off their children on the first day of classes in China since dozens of children were injured in three back-to-back attacks on schools last week.
Police cars and vans could be seen outside of schools in Beijing, with lights flashing as security guards in orange vests watched students enter school gates. Additional security cameras were installed at some schools.
The schools had been closed for a three-day public holiday, but that had not calmed nerves in the wake of the latest attack Friday, when a farmer used a motorcycle to break down the gate of a primary school in the eastern city of Weifang in Shandong province and struck five students with a hammer. He then poured gasoline over his body and burned to death, reports said.
Parents in Beijing said they were glad to see the new security measures.
"I support this with both hands. It definitely is a good thing," said one mother after dropping off her 6-year-old son at the Shijia Elementary School. She would give only her surname Bai. The well-known school in central Beijing has about 1,200 first- and second-grade students.
Bai, a 36-year-old housewife, said a teacher sent a text message telling parents to be especially cautious when taking their children to school and that new arrangements were being made for how the children should be picked up after classes.
In the Weifang attack, the children were not seriously hurt, but school security has been an increased focus for over a month since a man stabbed eight elementary schoolchildren to death in March in Fujian province.
He was executed on April 28, the same day a 33-year-old former teacher broke into a primary school in the southern city of Leizhou in Guangdong province and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife. The attacker had been on sick leave from another school since 2006, reportedly for mental health problems.
Then on Thursday, in Taixing city in Jiangsu province, a 47-year-old unemployed man armed with an 8-inch knife wounded 29 kindergarten students — five of them seriously — plus two teachers and a security guard.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security issued an emergency notice to police departments around the country to strengthen patrols in and around schools at the beginning and end of the school day, and to inspect small hotels, Internet cafes and "recreational sites" next to schools. Police should "strive to provide our students and children with an environment of strong security and public order to grow up in," the notice said.