The government of Liuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has called on its residents on Tuesday to hunt for this type of fish.
It also declared the river off-limits to swimmers while the hunt goes on for the fish which is believed to have been illegally imported for exotic aquariums.
Government has not left any stone unturned to make sure that the fish is caught, China Daily reported.
From providing free pork and other meat for the fishermen to use as bait to temporarily lifting a ban on using fishing nets in parts of the Liujiang River that flow through the city, the government is doing it all, the paper said.
The warrant for the flesh-shearing fish came after three of them were seen in the river, one of which bit the left hand of Zhang Kaibo when he was bathing his dog, as well as biting the finger of his friend in Liuzhou on Saturday afternoon. One fish was caught but the other two escaped.
The local government has confirmed that they were of the species Serrasalmus sanchezi, a kind of piranha, which are mostly found in the Amazon River, the paper reported.