Seven children hacked to death in China school attack

At least 20 children were wounded in the attack that happened at about eight in the morning local time in Nanzheng County, a rural southwest corner of Shaanxi province. The Xinhua report gave no other details.

The attack, which follows a series of stabbings at Chinese schools and universities in recent years, appears sure to stoke widespread public anger and disquiet after a succession of five attacks on school children in the last few weeks.

In late April, a hammer-wielding man doused with gasoline set himself alight after injuring five children and a teacher in Shandong province in eastern China.

Before that, a teacher stabbed and wounded 16 students and a teacher at a primary school in southern Guangdong province.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Ken Wills)