This afternoon, local police received the report that a man rushed into a residence and slashed 16 children, who were at the noon care, with a wood chopper, according to Pingnan county government in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
All injured were rushed to hospital. Three children died in the attack and 13 others were injured, officials were quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying.
The suspect, surnamed Wu, has been arrested by police.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
In the past two years China has seen several violent attacks against children, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 15 children and two adults and wounded more than 80.