A man stabbed eight people to death, including three family members, in eastern China, state media quoted police as saying on Sunday, the latest in a spate of attacks that have shocked the nation.
The suspect, Zhou Yezhong, killed his mother, wife, daughter, four neighbours and one migrant worker with a knife about 6.00pm on Saturday (1000 GMT, 2000 AEST) in Chengyuan village, Badu Township, in Jiangxi province, Xinhua news agency said.
He was caught about 7.50pm by police and an investigation is under way.
Cities around China have taken preventative measures following a series of attacks on children.
On April 30, a farmer armed with a hammer injured five children and a teacher at a primary school in the eastern province of Shandong before setting himself on fire.
A day earlier, a jobless man apparently angry over a series of personal and professional setbacks slashed 29 children and three adults at a kindergarten in the eastern city of Taixing.
That attack came a day after a 33-year-old teacher placed on sick leave for mental problems injured 15 students and a teacher in a knife attack at a primary school in southern China's Guangdong province.
And on the same day, authorities in Fujian province in the southeast executed a former doctor for stabbing to death eight children and injuring five others in March in a fit of rage after he broke up with his girlfriend.
The attacks underscore how China - which has enjoyed lower violent crime rates than the West - faces a growing public safety threat from disgruntled individuals amid rising mental illness rates and looser social controls.
Studies have cited a rise in mental disorders, some linked to stress as society becomes more fast-paced and old communist-era supports are scrapped.
A study last year estimated that 173 million adults in China have some type of mental disorder - 91 per cent of whom had never received professional help.
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