A stabbing spree left eight people dead in China's eastern city of Wuxi on Saturday, police said in a statement. Another 17 were injured.

The attack took place the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Art and Technology at Yixing, a part of the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu province.

The authorities identified the suspect as a 21-year-old student.

The AFP news agency cited police as saying he has been arrested.

Police say suspect angered by academic failure

The student 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 in a statement, adding that he had confessed to the crimes.

Police said emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded, and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.

The incident comes just days following a hit-and-run incident where thirty-five people were killed and 43 others were injured after a car drove into a group of people outside a sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai.

China has also seen other attacks in recent months. In October, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a Shanghai supermarket.

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

mm/dj (AFP, Reuters)