Chinese farmer slashes six to death

Beijing: An apparently deranged Chinese farmer slashed six people to death using a sickle and rice cutter, state media reported on Sunday.

Zhang Jinfu, a 43-year-old resident of Xuyang Village in central China's Hubei province, carried out the attacks on Saturday morning, Xinhua news agency reported.

The dead included an elderly woman, two brothers in their 60s and a boy aged seven. The boy's mother was also attacked and is in a serious condition in hospital, the report said.

Villagers said Zhang had spent time in a psychiatric hospital, but police offered no motive for Zhang's eruption of violence.