Police in south-west China have arrested a man suspected of hacking a father and his four children to death, the latest in a string of grisly killings to occur in the nation, state press said Sunday. Deng Xueyun was captured by police in Guizhou province on Saturday, about 17 hours after allegedly murdering his neighbour Deng Zhaoxiang, 40, and his four young children, the Beijing News reported.
The elder Deng was hacked to death outside the door of his home in Lushan village late Friday, while the two boys and two girls were killed while asleep in bed, it said. The children were aged between six and 11 years of age, it added.
The report identified the suspect as a neighbour of the victim. It was not immediately clear if they were related. The murders were the latest to occur in China in recent weeks.
On December 13, a 34-year-old man allegedly shot and hacked to death 12 family members in a forested area in central China's Hunan province and torched some of their homes.
Earlier this month, police in south-west China captured a man suspected of murdering his parents and four other relatives after he escaped from a mental hospital in Yunnan province. In late November, police in southern Hainan province captured a man suspected of hacking to death his parents, wife, sons and sister in Beijing. On November 28, a man suspected of the stabbing murders of six people committed suicide in Inner Mongolia.