A local court on Saturday sentenced to death a man who attacked and hurt 29 children and three teachers at an eastern Chinese city kindergarten last month.

 

The convicted unemployed man was the second to receive the death sentence after five separate attacks on children across the country in less than two months.

 

The Taixing Intermediate People's Court found Xu Yuyuan guilty of "intentional homicide" after a half-day open trial, which was attended by 300 people.

 

Xu admitted to the court his motive was to vent his rage against society. But he appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe since no one died in the attack.

 

According to Chinese penal code, one can be convicted of intentional homicide if he acts on his intent to kill.

 

Twenty-nine children and three adults were injured when Xu attacked them with a meat cleaver, at Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing city on April 29. No one died in the attack.

 

A previous police probe found Xu had remained jobless after he was fired by a local insurance company in 2001. He earlier told police he carried out the attack because he was angry about a series of business and personal humiliations.

 

Reading out the verdict, the judge said Xu could not handle his frustrations with his work and personal life and venting his rage against society in such a way could not be tolerated.

 

Brutal attacks on children over the last two months in China have left 17 killed and scores injured. In the latest atrocity, a 48-year-old man killed seven children and two women with a meat cleaver at a kindergarten in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on May 12.

 

In another case, Zheng Minsheng, 42, murdered eight children outside their primary school in east China's Fujian Province in March. He was executed on April 28.

 

Zheng was convicted on April 4. His following appeal was rejected.

 

The suspects in the other three cases have yet to stand trial.

 

Local authorities have been ordered to beef up security at school compounds and nearby residential communities.

 

State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu has ordered police forces to cooperate with education authorities to more rigorously search for security risks around kindergartens and schools.

 

He also has called for improved psychological counseling for anti-social and paranoid individuals.