A man suspected of stabbing two doctors at two Beijing hospitals 11 days ago was caught by police on Tuesday, it has been confirmed.
Lu Fuke, a 51-year-old native of Beijing, was apprehended at around 5:25 p.m. in neighboring Hebei province, said an official with the information office of the Beijing police department on Tuesday evening.
Wearing a mask, Lu allegedly stabbed a female doctor in the neck in the Otolaryngological Department at Peking University People's Hospital on the morning of April 13.
Later that day, a man, also wearing a mask, stabbed another doctor in the neck at the Beijing Aerospace Hospital.
The two doctors are in stable conditions.
Police believed the two assaults were conducted by the same man and later came to suspect Lu of the crimes.
Police have escorted Lu back to Beijing and are investigating his possible motives.
After the assaults, police have beefed up security inside and around hospitals in Beijing.
The city's police department is setting up offices in big hospitals. So far, police offices have been installed in 50 hospital compounds.
China has seen growing numbers of violent doctor-patient disputes.
On Saturday, a Beijing court sentenced a man to 15 years in jail for stabbing a surgeon in September last year.
The 54-year-old throat-cancer patient stabbed his victim 18 times in her arms, head and back after accusing the surgeon of malpractice during an operation.
On March 23, a 17-year-old patient barged into an office at a hospital in the northeastern city of Harbin, and stabbed medical practitioners in the head and neck before trying to take his own life with the knife. One wounded medical intern later died. Three other hospital staff suffered injuries.
The young man was reported to have carried out the attack because he was not given immediate treatment.
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