Foreign students hospitalized

Two foreign students remained in critical condition at Tongji Hospital Sunday after a stranger struck them both in the head with a hammer near their university in Baoshan district.

The two women, one from Indonesia, 22, and one from France, 20, were attacked Friday while walking down Shangda Road near Shanghai University, according to news reports on Shanghai Television Station and in the Jiefang Daily.

A staff member from Tongji Hospital told the Global Times Sunday that both students were still being treating in the Intensive Care Unit.

Neither woman has been identified.

Police received a report around noon Friday that two women had been found lying on the ground with bloody head wounds, according to a microblog post by the Baoshan District Public Security Bureau. Within 10 minutes, officers had tracked down a suspect, an Anhui Province man surnamed Hu, who was hiding on Hutai Road. Hu had a hammer in his possession when police found him.

Hu did not know the victims. Police said he attacked the two women at random because he was angry about an unrelated argument.

The Baoshan police refused to comment Sunday about where Hu got the hammer.

Shanghai University's College of International Exchange, which handles the administration of foreign students, will contact the victims' families, said Liu Shaoxue, the head of the university's press department.