BEIJING, May 20 — A knife-wielding attacker went on a rampage at a Chinese primary school today, wounding eight schoolchildren with one seriously hurt, state media reported.

The 35-year-old suspect, a man surnamed Chen, rushed into the school in Macheng in the central province of Hubei and began slashing at students with a kitchen knife, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local government.

Police apprehended Chen at the scene, the report added, and the eight injured pupils were hospitalised.

China has seen several violent attacks against children in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 17 people — 15 of them children — and wounded more than 80.

Last March, a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China's commercial hub Shanghai. —AFP