Beijing: The dreaded attacks on school children returned to haunt China on Thursday after 22 of them were injured besides an 85-year-old woman after a "mentally deranged" man, armed with a knife, went on a slashing spree at a primary school.

Armed with a knife Min Yingjun, 36 attacked group of children at the gate of a primary school in central China`s Henan Province setting off panic in the village.

The woman and most of the injured students suffered head wounds.

Some of them were in shock, according to the People`s Hospital of the county, which received most of the people injured in the attack.

All the injured people have been sent to three local hospitals and at least two of them, one student and an 85-year-old woman, are in serious condition, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The attack took place this morning at the entrance of Chenpeng Village Primary School in Wenshu Township of Guangshan County in the city of Xinyang.

Local police said they had detained Min, stated to be mentally deranged person.

Min burst into the 85-year-old woman`s house, located next to the school and went baresark after an argument, according to the daughter of the old woman.

Liu is said to have seized a knife at the house and attacked the elderly woman.

He then left, rushed into the school campus and slashed students, according to villagers.

The suspect was unknown in the village and might be mentally ill, some villagers said.

"I want to go home," cried a 7-year-old student surnamed Wei, who arrived at the hospital in a serious condition with a skull fracture.

The boy`s coat was stained with blood and he was quite scared after being wounded, according to the boy`s relatives.

China has been experiencing the school attacks in different places for some time.

Dubbed as social revenge attacks by frustrated people marginalised by China`s rapid development in recent years, the attackers mainly targeted school children to make maximum impact.

A number of attackers have already been given executed after courts gave them death sentences.

After several such attacks since 2010, the government has ordered all schools to beef-up security and the official media stopped reporting the incidents to avoid copy-cat imitations.

PTI