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A severely injured policeman receives medical treatment
at the Changzheng Hospital in Shanghai yesterday.

A MAN armed with just a knife yesterday killed five police officers in a frenzied attack in Shanghai.

Four other officers and a security guard are in hospital, one of them in a critical condition, after the solo attack caught them by surprise.

The man stormed into the office building of the Zhabei District Public Security Bureau and stabbed nine people yesterday morning.

He first lit a fire outside the gate of the bureau's office building at 578 Tianmu Road M. and knifed the security guard who tried to stop him.

The assailant then broke into the office about 9:40am, stabbing nine police officers inside, according to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

The 28-year-old unemployed man, identified as Yang from Beijing, has confessed that it was a revenge attack, according to senior officers.

Yang said he was held and questioned by officers at the Zhabei bureau last October for allegedly stealing bicycles, according to preliminary-investigation results released yesterday by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

"I saw two people in police uniform carried out from the office about 10am, one with his stomach cut open," a female witness surnamed Chen, who works in a nearby bakery, told Xinhua news agency.

"They were followed by another two injured policemen, one with head injuries and the other with shoulder injuries. Their clothing was soaked with blood."

A middle-aged woman surnamed Wang, who was also at the scene, told Shanghai Daily: "My friend was waiting to apply for her temporary ID card at the office when she saw the man break in and stab the officers. She told me that she fled immediately because she feared for her life."

Yang was apprehended at the scene, and the victims were sent to five hospitals. Five officers were pronounced dead from multiple stab wounds, doctors said.
Shanghai No. 10 People's Hospital said one officer was admitted at 10am. He was undergoing an operation on his liver and was also stabbed in the face, the hospital told Shanghai Daily.

Beizhan Hospital, Shanghai No. 1 People's Hospital, Zhabei District Central Hospital and Shanghai Changzheng Hospital also treated victims.