Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect—a former student—has been arrested, police said.

The attack took place in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province, police in Yixing said in a statement, confirming the toll.

Police said the suspect was a 21-year-old former student at the school who was meant to graduate this year but had failed his exams.

“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.

In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilised to treat the wounded and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.

Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks with such a high death toll are relatively rare.

Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai.

And there has been a spate of other attacks in recent months.

In October, in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.

And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong. (AFP)