Beijing, Sep 14 (IANS): Six people, including two pre-schoolers, were killed Wednesday morning in a Chinese city by a man armed with an axe.

The attack took place on a street in Gongyi city in central China's Henan province at 8.40 a.m., reported Xinhua.

One of the pre-schoolers and three of the adults died at the spot, while the remaining two victims died in hospital, a government spokesman said.

Both the pre-schoolers were girls, aged one and four. The dead adults were a man and three women.

Cao Jianli, an official, said the attacker dropped his weapon after seeing that he was surrounded by police.

"I and several of my colleagues rushed out to the street when we heard people crying for help. We used mops to fend off the axe-wielding man," Cao said.

Witnesses said the man appeared to be attacking pedestrians at random.

The attacker was identified as Wang Hongbin, a 30-year-old local farmer.

Police said that the man's medical records indicated that he suffers from schizophrenia.