Updated April 28, 2018 08:12:03

Seven Chinese secondary school students have been killed and another 12 injured in a knife attack outside a school, state television reports.

The attacker had been bullied at school and harboured a hatred of children, the report by state broadcaster CCTV said.

The attack happened at the Number 3 Middle School in Mizhi county in the north-western province of Shaanxi, when the students were on their way home from classes.

The suspect, a 28-year-old man also from Mizhi, wanted to exact payback for the bullying he had suffered at school, CCTV reported.

According to a police statement posted on social blogging site Weibo, the attack occurred at 6:10pm local time and the suspect was taken into custody.

The Shaanxi City Express newspaper showed pictures of children on the ground covered in blood, and the suspect being lead away by police.

Violent crime is rare in China compared with many other countries, especially in major cities where security is tight, but there has been a series of knife and axe attacks in recent years and many of them have targeted children.

In February, a woman was killed and 12 people injured when a man carried out a knife attack in a mall in a busy shopping district in the capital, Beijing.

Knives are most commonly used because gun control laws are extremely strict in China.

ABC/Wires

Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, china, asia

First posted April 28, 2018 06:12:39