Updated

A man has stabbed 10 children outside the gates of a school in China, severely injuring two, before killing himself.

Six boys and four girls were attacked outside a primary school in the city of Haikou, on the southern island province of Hainan, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

The youngsters were taken to hospital. None of them suffered life-threatening injuries, but two were seriously hurt in Monday's attack.

Police described it as a "vicious" attack.

The body of the attacker, who killed himself, is removed from the scene

"I thought my child would be safe at school. I didn't think something like this would happen," the mother of Liu Qiang, seven, told the Nanhai Online news portal at the hospital where her son was being treated.

The attacker was later identified as 45-year-old Li Sijun.

Violent crime in China is rare compared with other countries.

However, there have been a series of attacks involving knives and axes in recent years.

Children have been targeted in many of these assaults.

In 2014, three children and a teacher were stabbed to death by a man at a primary school that refused to enrol his daughter.

A man killed two relatives and wounded 11 people, including six children, outside a school in Shanghai in March 2013.

In 2010, a 42-year-old man killed eight children at a primary school in China's Fujian province.

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