Man, Possibly Mentally Disordered, Kills 6

Police in central China arrested a man who, possibly suffering mental disorder, killed six villagers and injured one on Saturday.

Zhang Jinfu, 43, a farmer of Xuyang village in Luodian Town, Hubei Province, slashed two old men who were brothers in their 60s, a couple in their 50s and their mother aged 80 or so and a 7-year-old boy named Zhang Tiantian early Saturday morning, with a sickle and a tool with tines on both ends for rice harvest.

The boy's mother, Xu Lizhen was also injured by Zhang when she tried to rescue her son. Xu has been sent to hospital. Doctors said she had not passed through a danger period.

The Jingshan County Public Security Bureau said it received the murder report at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and immediately ordered police to rush to the scene. Zhang was captured by police when attempting to flee the scene.

Xiang Jun, a police officer of Jingmen City Public Security Bureau, said villagers said Zhang had once been hospitalized for mental disease.

During the interrogation, Zhang talked in a disorderly way, laughing while answering questions asked by policemen, according to Xiang.

Police judged it was possibly the relapse of his mental disease that prompted him to carry out the murders. But this needed a medical examination.