Man sentenced to death for murder of Shanghai schoolchildren

The man who stabbed and killed two 10-year-old students in Shanghai was sentenced to death by the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court on Thursday.

Huang Yichuan stands trial at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on May 23, 2019. [Photo: China Daily]

On the morning of June 28, 2018, Huang Yichuan, a native of Shaoyang city, Hunan province, killed two boys near the gate of the Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School on Pubei Road in Xuhui district, Shanghai. He also injured another boy and a woman.

The court, which had heard the case on Dec 6, said on Thursday that Huang, who was then 29, committed the crime as he was frustrated by problems at work. He traveled to Shanghai on June 6 and bought a kitchen knife at a supermarket on June 12.

Although Huang was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia, the court said that it was not able to exempt him from punishment as the disorder did not have an obvious influence on his ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Police examine the site of a knife attack that occurred in downtown Shanghai leaving two boys dead and another boy and a parent wounded on June 28, 2018. [Photo: China Daily]

"He had an extremely despicable motive, used an extremely cruel manner to carry out the crime, and caused a severe consequence and extremely negative social impact," the court said.

The court pointed out that Huang had planned to carry out the crime for a long time, visiting several kindergartens and primary schools in Shanghai and Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, before deciding where to carry out the attack.