China executed on Saturday one of its worst serial killers, a man who murdered 67 people and raped two dozen women in a four-year crime spree.
Yang Xinhai, 38, was put to death less than two weeks after a court in the central province of Henan handed down his sentence, state television said. Yang had not appealed against the sentence, the report said.
The school dropout used tools such as an iron hammer or a meat cleaver to murder entire families during his rampage across four provinces. Yang previously served two stints in labour camps for other crimes, and turned to murder after his release in 1999.
China, which has viewed itself as largely free of the violent crime that grabs headlines in the West, has seen several serial killings in recent months. In December, a migrant worker was sentenced to death for killing 17 teenage boys in his home, and a garbage man received the same sentence for killing 10 competitors.