A 40-year-old criminal in China has been executed for killing eight pupils on the first day of school, reported state media.

Yu Hua, from the province of Hubei, broke into a primary school on September 2 armed with a cleaver before fatally slashing the young victims.

He was sentenced to death by a regional court on November 4 and executed today.

The attack occurred in China's Chaoyangpo Primary School (pictured) on the first day of class. The mass killer was sentenced to death last month by a regional court and executed today

Yu was found guilty of intentional homicide by the Intermediate People's Court of the Tujia and Miao Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture during a public trial last month.

He admitted his guilt at court and did not appeal to the court's decision.

The capital punishment was carried out by the court today after the ruling was approved by the country's Supreme People's Court, according to a report by the official news site of Enshi supervised by the city's People's Government.

According to previous reports, Yu who had been jailed once before carrying out the stabbing spree to take revenge on society, an insider revealed.

Two other pupils were injured in the incident.

Footage released by Chinese outlet Passion News shows ambulances entering the school. The criminal, Yu Hua, broke into the school armed with a cleaver before fatally slashing the victims

Eight pupils were killed and two more were wounded in the stabbing spree in September. The culprit slashed boys and girls with a cleaver to take revenge on society, an insider revealed

The attack occurred about 8am on the first day of the new semester in China when pupils went back to class after a two-month-long summer break.

'The culprit was released from prison after serving his term not long ago,' a local resident told Passion News, a state-approved news outlet affiliated to the Young Pioneers of China.

The resident added: '[He] wanted to take revenge on society so he took a cleaver and went to the Chaoyangpo Primary School in Baiyangping Town.'

Passion News also released footage of ambulances being called to the school.

A source who works at the Hubei prison system told China's Southern Weekly that Yu was released in June, 2018, after serving more than eight years in jail for attempted murder.

The source claimed to have seen the criminal loitering in front of the school gate a day before the stabbing.

The court did not reveal Yu's motives in the report today.

The attack occurred about 8am today in Baiyangping Town in Enshi city (pictured) in Hubei

The killer from Enshi was executed by the Intermediate People's Court of the Tujia and Miao Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture. He had admitted his guilt during a public trial by the court

Knife crimes are relatively rare in schools in China, but a number of high-profile cases have happened last year rocking the country.

In June last year, two children were stabbed to death by a man outside an elementary school in Shanghai.

In April last year, nine were killed and more than a dozen injured outside a middle school in north-western Shaanxi province by an attacker who allegedly was a former pupil seeking revenge for having been bullied.

In October, a woman slashed children on the playground of a kindergarten with a cleaver, leaving 14 pupils injured.