Hunt for man suspected of eight axe murders

POLICE in central China have launched a manhunt for a love-lorn junk collector suspected in the axe murders of eight people, including a two-year-old boy and his grandmother, state media has reported.

Authorities found the bodies of Zou Chuanshuo and his grandmother, Zhu Deqing, 43, in their home in Luoyang near Suizhou city on Monday. Their fatal wounds suggested the killer had been armed with an axe, Xinhua said.

Police have named Xiong Zhenlin, a local junk collector, as the suspect in the killings, a police spokesman was quoted saying. The bodies of six other people, apparently employees of Xiong, along with bloodstained hammers and axes were also found at Xiong’s junkyard, it said.