Man held over China school deaths

The suspect was arrested after his mother reported him to police

A man has been arrested in connection with the deaths of eight boys stabbed as they slept in a dormitory, Chinese officials have said.

The suspect was captured thanks to a tip-off to police from his mother after he tried to commit suicide, Chinese media reported.

Four other children were wounded in the attack at a secondary school in the city of Ruzhou, in Henan province.

There has been a series of stabbings in Chinese schools in recent months.

Police arrested Yan Yanming, 21, in Ruzhou in connection with the latest attack after his mother reported him, according to Xinhua news agency.

In the incident - the sixth in four months - a man got into the city's Number 2 High School and stabbed the victims in their beds.

A government official told AFP that those killed were all in the lower beds of bunk beds, and had been sleeping in at least three separate dormitories.

Two of the four students who survived the attack were seriously injured, local news reports said.

Execution

In September 24 children were injured in a knife attack in Shandong.

STRING OF ATTACKS September - man knifes 28 children in day care centre in Suzhou September - man knifes 24 children at school in Shandong August - 15 children and 3 teachers knifed in Beijing kindergarten, by man with history of mental illness. One child died Press at odds over killings

The man responsible for that attack was executed on Wednesday. The court said his actions had been "especially cruel".

The recent wave of violence in schools had already provoked public anger, reports the BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing.

Now Chinese citizens are asking how such an attack can have happened again.

Kindergartens were ordered to overhaul their security and check the qualifications of their staff after a caretaker with a history of mental illness stabbed 15 children in August, killing one.

Worried by the violence, schools in the capital, Beijing, and other regions have begun employing professional guards to protect students, Xinhua reported.