Mr Yang dropped his luggage and ran for his life when he heard a shout break out in the Guangzhou train station that said, “Someone is slashing people. Run!”

Mr Ren, who accompanied Yang on the same train on May 6, even reminded him to bring his luggage, but Yang did not heed his call. For Yang, running for his life was a familiar instinct given this was the second knife attack he has experienced. Yang was also at the Kunming Railway Station during the knife attack that left 29 people dead last March.

Yang managed to escape both attacks safely.

READ: Knife Attack at Guangzhou Railway Station Injures Six [UPDATED]

When interviewed by Nanfang Metroplis Daily afterwards, Yang said: “I don’t know why I am so unfortunate. On that day (of the Kunming attack), I was seeing my friend off at the train station when I heard people saying someone was attacking people. Today, just as I walked out the station, the same thing happened again.” The attack was so traumatic that Yang ran and hid in a branch of the China Post located in the west corner of the station. Yang sat there for two hours before he recovered. “I saw the attacker slash a man’s neck. The man covered the wound with his hands, but it was dripping with blood,” Yang recalled.

The police said six people were injured during the attack that happened before noon on May 6. Eyewitnesses first claimed there were four knife-wielding attackers wearing white clothes and white hats, but police later confirmed there was only one attacker.

(Here is an image of the alleged attacker circulating online; the attacker is standing on the left side.) 

Another witness named Ms Zhou was originally at the station to pick someone up when she saw a man wearing white clothes charge towards a crowd in her direction. She saw the attacker hack at the back of a woman’s neck. Zhou said, “Her long hair was cut off instantly, and I saw the knife cut deep into her neck. I don’t know how the woman is now.”

A porter surnamed Chen said the attacker was still standing when the police fired a shot at his abdomen. “The police asked him to drop his knife, but he refused and charged towards the police, wielding his weapon. Another porter tripped him from behind, and he eventually fell on the ground. Three policemen made the arrest,” Chen said.

The identity of the attacker is currently unknown; the suspect was not carrying any identification at the time of arrest.

The Guangzhou attack was the third attack at a Chinese train station in recent history. The Kunming knife attack took place in March, and an explosion happened last week at a train station in Urumqi, Xinjiang. During that incident, the detonation of a bomb killed three (two attackers and one civilian) and wounded 79 people.

Home page credit: Guangzhou Daily