China adds security cameras around Japan school after student fatally stabbed

Installation of security cameras around a Japanese school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen was completed Friday, as Japan called for enhanced security following the fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old schoolboy this week.

With authorities yet to disclose the 44-year-old suspect's motive, Chinese Foreign Vice Minister Sun Weidong told Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi on Thursday the attack was an "isolated incident" committed by an individual with a criminal history, according to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.

The boy, whose father is Japanese and mother is Chinese, was stabbed in the abdomen as he was around 200 meters from the school gate on Wednesday morning. He died early Thursday, according to the Japanese government.

A Shenzhen media report said Friday the suspect, surnamed Zhong, has admitted to injuring the boy with a knife and that local authorities believe he acted alone.

The report also said the unemployed man had been detained twice in the past on suspicion of sabotaging public telecommunications facilities as well as disturbing public order.

Installation of additional security cameras near the school and the crime scene began Thursday morning.

Kanasugi met the same day with Shenzhen Vice Mayor Luo Huanghao, calling for tighter security to ensure the safety of Japanese residents.

The stabbing followed a knife attack in Suzhou near Shanghai in June in which a Japanese mother and child were injured. A Chinese woman died while trying to stop the assailant.

Bilateral ties have deteriorated recently over issues including China's detention of Japanese nationals in connection with alleged espionage and Beijing's total import ban on Japanese seafood, imposed after the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant commenced in August last year.

© KYODO