SHANGHAI -- Shanghai Municipal Higher People's Court on Dec 30 upheld the death sentence for a man who stabbed and killed two school children outside a primary school in Shanghai last year.

The Shanghai court rejected Huang Yichuan's appeal against the death penalty verdict given by Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in May.

On June 28, 2018, Huang stabbed three children and a parent with a knife outside Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School. Two students died, while another and a parent were slightly injured.

Believing that he had been insulted and hurt by others, Huang got the idea of killing innocent children to vent his anger, according to the court.

Although Huang was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the court said the diagnosis cannot exempt him from punishment because the mental illness had no significant influence on his ability to identify and control his behavior during the crime.

The death sentence is awaiting approval by the Supreme People's Court.