Chinese teen stabs six schoolmates, kills two

BEIJING, May 17 (Reuters) A Chinese teenager stabbed six schoolmates, killing two, then turned himself in to police, state media said today of an attack that might have been prompted by demands for protection money.

Wu Jianguo, 17, fled his school in Maoming in the southern province of Guangdong after the attacks on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said.

One student was killed on the spot and the second died in hospital.

''On his parents' advice, Wu decided to give himself up to police,'' state television said.

Neither the police nor Wu's parents had provided a reason for the attacks, but a villager was quoted as saying the wounded students had asked Wu for protection money, Xinhua said.

Wu had turned to his teacher for help but the teacher did not take any action, it said, citing the villager.

The issue of protection fees -- in which students are blackmailed into paying money so they are not subjected to physical violence -- has been widely reported in the Chinese media in recent years.

In March, a 50-member gang in Xinyi City, in the southwest province of Guizhou, all of whom were under 17, was found to have extorted 16,000 yuan (2,100 dollar) in protection fees from more than 100 primary and middle-school students in the past two years, Xinhua said.

Children at an elite primary school in Huizhou, an industrial town in Guangdong, were forced to wear masks in class photographs to conceal their identity from ''jealous'' and ''angry'' elements in society, the China Daily said in a separate report today.

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