SHANGHAI: Multi-billionaire Zong Qinghou, China’s second richest man, was attacked and injured by a would-be job applicant wielding a knife, official media said on Wednesday.

Zong, China’s richest man until he was dethroned last week, is chairman of the country’s leading beverage producer Wahaha Group. Forbes magazine estimates his personal wealth at $11 billion, second only to Wang Jianlin, head of conglomerate Wanda Group, on $14bn.

An unemployed man armed with a knife approached Zong near his home in the eastern city of Hangzhou on Friday and asked him for a job with Wahaha, the official Xinhua news agency reported. When he was rebuffed the man, surnamed Yang, turned violent and attacked the 67-year-old tycoon, it said, citing police. He suffered injuries to tendons in two fingers of his left hand.—AFP