Two women nearly stabbed to death in Pudong

We're not sure whether Shanghai is becoming less safe, or whether the local media is covering more violent crimes, or whether we're just getting more paranoid in our old age. Regardless, there's a guy in Pudong stabbing women and stealing their handbags. Shanghai Daily has the disturbing details:

At around 11pm on Wednesday, a nurse noticed somebody following her when she was walking on Deping Road. Five minutes later, she was stabbed in the back near the gate of her apartment building and fell to the ground, the report said. The assailant then grabbed her handbag and ran away, she told the newspaper.

She said she yelled and stood up so she could chase the man. When she almost reached the robber, she found it very difficult to breathe. She then realized she was severely wounded, so she called the police on her mobile, the report said.

Her lung was pierced by the knife, the newspaper said. She left a blood trail when she chased the robber.

Having heard her cries for help, a 70-year-old man, who was identified as Wang, rushed out with a club in hand. But, he only found the victim on the ground covered in blood, the newspaper said.

Thank God for 70-year-old men with clubs. There was another similar stabbing in the same area -- Deping Lu ... we're not really familiar with it here is the general location -- two days prior. We're not sure why the news didn't hit the papers for a week, or why it was important to mention that the victims were "single." Both women "almost died."

Luckily, they have a description of the assailant:

According to the description given by the victims, the robber was about 25 years old. He is lean, with a short hair cut and about 170 centimeters to 175 centimeters tall, the police added.

So, that narrows it down. The story said residents had complained about a lack of security in the area ... and that, basically, residents were asking for it. Only 70 percent of them had paid their property management fees. Therefore, the residential complex wasn't able to afford the proper security equipment.

Image from Sinosplice.