Today at around 2pm Beijing time, a stabbing occurred at the ophthalmology department of Chaoyang Hospital, leaving one doctor seriously injured. Details of the incident are currently scarce but the doctor, surnamed Tao, reportedly received multiple cuts to his arm and the back of his head, according to the Global Times. Witnesses at the scene said that he dropped to the floor immediately after the attack, as others searched frantically for help.

A further report states that Dr. Tao was chased by two assailants, who wielded a "long, thin knife," and that blood stains extended from the seventh floor down to the sixth. The attackers were apprehended by the police.

Several other doctors, as well as a mother and daughter who were witness to the incident, were also reportedly attacked but incurred much less serious injuries. Police arrived at the hospital, which is less than kilometer south of Sanlitun, and have blocked off entrances while they investigate.

No motive for the attack has been released but the incident comes less than a month after a female doctor at the Beijing Civil Aviation General Hospital was stabbed in the neck by a 55-year-old male. It was reported that the perpetrator was dissatisfied with the treatment of his 95-year-old mother and attacked the doctor, who died from her injuries.

Unfortunately, such incidents are all-too-common in Chinese hospitals, where security is poor and patients or their family and friends often abuse hospital staff who they consider inattentive, or for other perceived injustices. In a recent online study, 85 percent of Chinese doctors stated that they had experienced a violent incident at work, and while these most recent incidents have increased calls for greater protections for hospital staff, this stabbing – at one of the biggest hospitals in the capital – shows that there's a long way to go.

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Images: Anna Pellegrin Hartley, Global Times, bjheadline.com