Man in China injures 54 people in a chemical attack.

New York Times.

A 23 year old man is in custody after a chemical attack at a school injured 54 people, 51 of them being children. New York Times. The attack occurred in Yunnan Province in Kaiyuan. The attacker, named Kong, used caustic soda, sodium hydroxide or lye, to injure the children. Through no one was killed, two people were left with serious injures. Caustic soda can cause burns, irritation of the eyes and hair loss. Police said that the man's motive was to take revenge on society. China has had a long history of school attacks with similar motives. 

My Comment:

Yet another horrible attack in China. They have had a long history of attacks on schools where children are targeted. Even though America has a somewhat unfair reputation of having dangerous schools, the same problem is in China and indeed, global in nature. Schools make good targets for disturbed people as they aren't well defended and have a large emotional impact. 

The difference is what kind of weapon is used. In the United States school attacks usually involve mass shootings. However, China has massive amounts of gun control to the point where civilians basically have no access to firearms. 

This has not stopped these kinds of attacks. Indeed, they have become very common and quite horrible. Usually they involve mass stabbings but this case shows that you don't even need a knife to injure dozens of people. 

Using caustic soda as a weapon is fairly unusual. It's an extremely common chemical used for many household and industrial purposes. It's extremely easy to get a hold of even in a repressive state like China. Though it's extremely unlikely to kill you unless you consume it, it can cause pretty severe burns. How this attacker weaponized it is not something I want to speculate too much on. I am sure there are plenty of ways but I don't necessarily want to spread that information. 

I do think that this attack could inspire others. This attack is so basic that even someone without a gun, knife, or car could injure dozens of people. Almost anyone could use caustic soda to attack and though it won't kill anyone you could spread quite a bit of harm and misery. 

I'm kind of surprised that these kinds of chemical attacks don't happen more often. They aren't that hard to pull off but nobody seems to do it. ISIS and a few other insurgents in Syria used chlorine and other chemicals in bombing attacks, but most non-terrorist attacks do not involve them. I'm wondering if this latest attack will change things...