At least 51 children were injured after a chemical attack broke out at Kindergarten in southwest China, according to local authorities on Tuesday.

The attack took place on Monday evening authorities said on their Twitter-like Weibo account.

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The suspect, a 23-year-old surnamed Kong, entered the kindergarten by climbing a wall before spraying victims with sodium hydroxide, said local authorities in Kaiyuan city, Yunnan province.

Some 51 children and three teachers were taken to the hospital for treatment, two with “severe symptoms”.

Police have arrested Kong less than an hour after the attack.

Violent attacks targeting schoolchildren are not uncommon in China, which has seen a slew of deadly incidents over the past few years — usually involving knives.

Last year, in April, a 28-year-old man killed nine middle-school students as they were returning home in one of the country’s deadliest knife attacks in recent years.

The killer, who said he had been bullied when he attended the school in northern China’s Shaanxi province, was executed last year.

Later in 2018, a knife-wielding woman injured 14 children at a kindergarten in Sichuan province.

The 39-year-old assailant slashed students while they were returning to the classroom after morning exercises.

(With inputs from AFP)