Four US academics stabbed in China's Beishan park in daytime attack

Four United States college instructors teaching in China were stabbed in broad daylight while visiting a public park, The Guardian reported on Tuesday citing officials in the US.

According to a statement by Jonathan Brand, president of Iowa's Cornell College, the tutors of the college were visiting the park in China's north-eastern province of Jilin on Monday where they were stabbed.

They were accompanied by a faculty member from Beihua University, he said.

Details on the extent of the group's injuries and whether the daytime attack was targeted or random were unclear.

Iowa state representative Adam Zabner told US media that his brother, David Zabner, was one of the group visiting a temple in Beishan park when a man with a knife attacked them. 

David "was wounded in the arm during a stabbing attack while visiting a temple in Jilin City, China," he told Reuters, and was recovering in hospital.

A video of people lying on the ground in a park covered in blood were circulating on X on Monday.

No statements on the incident have been issued by Chinese authorities or reports found in Chinese media.

The state department said in a statement that it was aware of reports of a stabbing and that it was monitoring the situation.

The attack happened as both Beijing and Washington are seeking to maintain people-to-people exchange to prevent bilateral relations from deteriorating.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has unveiled a plan to invite 50,000 young Americans to China in the next five years, but Chinese diplomats say a travel advisory by the US state department has discouraged Americans from going to China.

There are fewer than 900 US exchange students studying in China compared with more than 290,000 Chinese students in the US, according to US data.