A Chinese primary school teacher stabbed four children to death and wounded 12 pupils and four colleagues last week in central China's Hunan province, the state media reported on Thursday.

After attacking the children in the grade one class, the 28-year-old briefly held 64 older pupils hostage, the Beijing Daily said. The bloodshed at the school in Hunan occurred last Thursday, a day before the week-long National Day holiday. The incident lasted 10 minutes.

"Many classmates were too frightened to cry," one child was quoted as saying. The attacker was arrested after negotiations with a county government official and all the hostages were freed, the newspaper said. It named the suspect but gave no reason for the attack.

On September 12, 28 children of poor migrant workers were injured when a man broke into a day care centre in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province and slashed at the kids with a knife.

On August 4, a janitor wielding a kitchen knife stabbed 15 children and at least two teachers in a kindergarten in Beijing, killing one child.