SHANGHAI (Kyodo) -- A Chinese court on Thursday held its first hearing on a stabbing incident last June near Shanghai, in which a Japanese mother and child were injured and a Chinese bus attendant who tried to intervene was killed, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai said.

A Chinese man in his 50s, who was unemployed and who had recently moved to Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, was subdued after assaulting the mother and child at a stop for a Japanese school bus on June 24. The attendant, Hu Youping, 54, died from stab wounds days after trying to stop the attack.

The hearing at the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court, following the man's indictment on Nov. 29 last year, was closed to the media. Chinese authorities have yet to disclose the charges against him or provide information on his motives.

Security was tight at the court building, where many Japanese reporters had gathered.

The Japanese woman in her 30s had been waiting with her son of preschool age for her older child to return from school before the knife attack.

In September, a 10-year-old boy whose father was Japanese and mother Chinese was fatally stabbed in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province on his way to a Japanese school.

Tokyo has repeatedly asked Beijing to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals living in China.