Expat slasher found to be mentally ill

The Chinese man who attacked two foreign men with a fruit knife in downtown Shanghai Sunday had been diagnosed with a mental illness before the incident, a local psychiatric hospital administrator told the Global Times Monday.

The attacker, a 55-year-old surnamed Song, slashed the faces of two expatriates, one from Australia and the other from the US, around 3 pm Sunday in Hongkou district. The two expats were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries and have since been released, according to Hongkou district police and a report on the news website Eastday.com.

Police arrested Song at the scene and sent him to a local psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Xue Zhiqiang, vice president of Shanghai Hongkou District Mental Health Center, said it was impossible to determine from the incident whether Song had any particular animosity toward foreigners. "We don't know whether the patient had attacked anyone before because we cannot look at his records. The patient was registered with the mental health authorities and police in Putuo and Zhabei districts before the incident," Xue told the Global Times.

Police received reports of the two attacks around the same time Sunday, according to a press officer surnamed Chen with the Hongkou police. "The two incidents occurred very close to each other," she told the Global Times.

The American victim was riding a bicycle and waiting for a traffic light to turn when the attack occurred, a witness told a news reporter with Shanghai Television Station.

"The Chinese man cut the foreigner below his right ear and he fell to the ground. Blood gushed from the wound," the witness said.

Another witness posted photographs of the aftermath of the attack on a microblogging site. The photos showed a foreign man pressing a blood-soaked white cloth against his right ear.

"The wounded man shouted 'doctor' in Chinese and several onlookers called the police," said another witness, who asked only to be identified as Yolanda.

According to local mental health regulations, patients can be temporarily hospitalized only if they are likely to hurt themselves, attack others or are a danger to society. Mental health hospitals are required to release a patient when his or her condition stabilizes.

Shanghai health authorities issued a regulation earlier this year that required authorities to register residents with serious mental health conditions. Under the regulation, medical staff will visit registered patients four times a year, as long as they have the consent of patients and their relatives.