BEIJING: Fifteenpeople were killed in China on the night of the Lunar New Year in two familytragedies, after one man started a fire and another went on a knife rampage. Aspeople celebrated to welcome in the Year of the Pig Monday night, a mansurnamed Lu set fire to the home of his brother in the northern province ofShaanxi, killing seven, according to police in the town of Baoji.
The brother, hiswife, their fathers and their three children died in the blaze, police said onthe Twitter-like Weibo platform. A few hours after the incident police arrestedthe suspect, who had just tried to kill himself. During the same night, a mansurnamed Guo, who suspected his wife of adultery, stabbed eight people to deathand injured seven in a village in the northwest province of Gansu, according topolice in the commune of Baiyin.
The man, aged 49,has been arrested. The identities of the victims have not been released. Knifeattacks are common in China, where the carrying of firearms is strictlyregulated. Violent crime has been on the rise as the economy has boomed inrecent decades and the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly. Studieshave also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of themlinked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and support systemswither._ AFP