Page last updated at 04:13 GMT, Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Seven children have been hacked to death in north-western China in the latest in a series of violent attacks on schools, state media report.
At least 20 others were injured after the attack in Hanzhong city in Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency reported, citing local authorities.
China has been shaken by a spate of attacks on schools in recent weeks.
In March, a man stabbed to death eight pupils at a school in Fujian province, and several similar attacks followed.
THIS YEAR'S ATTACKS
12 May: Seven children killed and 20 hurt in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province
30 April: Five children hurt in hammer attack in Weifang, Shandong
29 April: Three adults and 28 children injured in Taixing, Jiangsu
28 April: At least 15 children and one teacher injured in Leizhou, Guangdong
24 March: Eight children killed in Nanping, Fujian
A doctor was convicted of the Fujian attack and executed.
But in the space of a week in late April, three more attacks in different parts of China left dozens of children injured.
Motives for the attacks are not known, although officials have speculated that the incidents in late April were likely to be copycat attacks.
Hanzhong city official Liu Xiaoming told the Associated Press news agency that the man who carried out the killings in Hanzhong had killed himself afterwards. This has not been independently confirmed.
Last month, the education ministry ordered all schools to upgrade their security facilities, teach students about safety and ensure that young children were escorted home.
But correspondents say such measures are expensive and their effectiveness is unproven.
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