Updated

Chinese authorities have detained a man who they say confessed to kidnapping and killing three children in a southern village.

According to the city government of Yueyang in Hunan province, police detained 33-year-old Zhang Xingyan two days after a boy and two girls aged 8 to 9 went missing on their way to school early this week.

Zhang told police that he coaxed the children into a car and killed them. The children came from two families and knew Zhang.

A man had demanded a ransom of 900,000 yuan ($150,000) for the children's freedom, but it is unclear if Zhang made that phone call.