World

Teacher executed after child dies and several others injured in poison porridge incident

A nursery teacher in China has been executed after killing one child and injuring 24 others by poisoning their porridge.

Wang Yun was sentenced to death in September 2020 following the incident at Mengmeng Pre-school Education in Jiaozuo in March 2021.

She put sodium nitrite into the porridge of the students of another teacher in “revenge” after they argued over “management issues”, court statements said at the time.

Most of the children recovered fairly quickly – however, one died 10 months later of multiple organ failure caused by the poisoning.

Wang was initially convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison for deliberate harm, but her sentence was later changed by Jiaozuo city’s Intermediate Court in Henan province.

She had unsuccessfully appealed against the death sentence, state media reported on Friday.

The 39-year-old was taken to an execution ground and put to death on Thursday, a court statement said.

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She had previously poisoned her husband with the same substance bought online two years ago. He survived with mild injuries.

More prisoners are reportedly executed in China than the rest of the world combined, although the figure is a state secret.

Most executions are carried out with a bullet to the back of the head, although lethal injection using mobile units has been employed in some cases.