Bus murder suspect captured

The knife-wielding suspect in a commuter bus attack that left three dead and another 12 injured in Anyang, Henan Province, was captured on Tuesday, the city's public security bureau said.

Identified by local residents, Zhou Jiangbo, 24, was turned in to the police. There were still bloodstains on his clothes, reported the China News Service.

The bloodshed occurred Monday afternoon as the bus was on its way from downtown Anyang to Beiguo township, when Zhou began to attack 33 passengers on board.

The youngest of the three victims was a 10-month-old baby girl. The other two were boys aged 10 and 18.

Police initially said there had been a robbery on the bus and a 100,000-yuan ($16,330) reward had been offered to hunt down the fugitive suspect.

A violent domestic dispute motivated the man to violence, local police said on Tuesday.

Niu Changling, head of the bus line, told the Global Times that the suspect acted normally but suddenly became violent after failing to grab the driver's wheel. "The driver, who was stabbed in the arm, brought the bus under control and avoided a head-on collision with a truck on the other side of the road."

The bus ended up ramming into the truck from its side, leaving its windshield damaged and the conductor's eyes injured by the shattered glass.

The driver managed to pull over and opened the doors to evacuate passengers as Zhou was wielding his knife.

A passenger on the bus told the Global Times that when the woman carrying her 10-month-old baby saw the driver being stabbed, she tried to escape, but the suspect turned to her and stabbed the knife through her hand into the baby's belly.

Another witness surnamed Deng who was driving behind the bus told the Global Times that she first saw the bus sway in the middle of the road. "The next thing I saw was injured, bleeding passengers getting off. Many were hurt in the head or chest. The traffic was congested, as almost all the cars pulled over either to offer help or take a look at what was going on."

The violence is the latest attack on buses since June, when a public bus was set on fire in Xiamen, Fujian Province, leaving 48 dead and 34 injured.

Wang Hongwei, a public security expert with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that such cases should not be treated as isolated. "Such extreme violence should not be ignored as most cases reflect social problems."