Police in northwest China's Shaanxi Province are hunting a man suspected of killing four people, including his wife and four-year-old nephew, and injuring another seven, with an axe.

Zhang Qinhua, 30, a resident of Fenjiagou Village near Ankang City, embarked on the killing spree on Wednesday because of "family conflicts", police said. Two of his neighbors were also among his victims.

According to the Beijing News, Zhang carried out the violent attack because his wife, who has been working as a migrant worker in eastern China since they became married, recently requested a divorce.

Ankang is no stranger to tragedy. In July last year a Chinese farmer from the area, Qiu Xinghua, hacked to death an abbot and 10 other people, at a temple. Qiu said in his appeal that the abbot had flirted with his wife which had greatly harmed his dignity. He was executed last December.

On the same day as the axe murder in Shaanxi, a man named Qin Yulong in Youyang County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, reportedly killed two people and injured 21, including a four-month old baby, in a manic knife attack.

Qin "killed whoever he met" and was pinned to the ground by villagers more than two hours after he began his rampage, the Chongqing Evening News reported.

Qin's brother said Qin had been carrying a knife in each hand with another strapped to his back and claimed that his brother had been suffering from "intermittent psychological problems" since the age of 15.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2007)