A knife-wielding man on Friday stabbed four children to death while they on their way to school in southern China, local authorities reported.

The four students were on their way to school in the Lingshan county in the Guangxi Zhuang region when the tragic incident  happened.

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The suspect, who is believed to be a 56-year-old man, is currently being hunted down by the police.

The Friday incident is the most recent in a string of attacks on schoolchildren over the past 10 years, causing an increased security at Chinese schools.

Three of the children immediately died, while the fourth died later in the hospital, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, citing information from the Lingshan County government.

Over the past decade, China, a country where firearms are not easily obtained, has witnessed  a series of attacks with the use of bladed weapons. Schools have been targeted in many of these attacks.

As a result, the government imposed a stricter policy in buying weapons. Several regions required a registration and proper identification for the purchase of knives.

Earlier this month, three students were killed while six were injured when a man armed with a knife attacked schoolchildren at a Hubei province school.

In another incident in May 2010, seven children and a teacher were hacked to death and 20 others wounded when an attacker went on a killing spree at a northwest China Kindergarten, the fifth attack on schools in the country within three months.

According to local police reports, the majority of the attacks was carried out by adults who were not affiliated with the schools.

Reports claimed that the attackers suffered from mental illness or were on a rampage because of personal grudges against the society.

In response to the growing threat of violence in schools, communities have taken steps to increase security, including self-defense training for children and the confiscation of weapons upon entering school grounds.

Tagsschool stabbing, China violence, Society news