Map showing Zhenxiong county in China's Yunnan province, where an attack at a hospital has left more than 10 people dead or wounded according to state media on May 7. / AFP / STAFF

"A knife attack occurred at the Chengnan Hospital in Zhenxiong County, which resulted in two deaths and 21 injuries," a statement on the county's official WeChat account said.

The wounded were being treated in hospital, they added.

Local police said they caught the suspect on Tuesday afternoon, describing him as a 40-year-old man from a nearby village.

Images published by the state-run news site The Paper appeared to show a man pointing a knife at another man wielding a stick in a hospital lobby, as well as police officers arriving at the scene.

Mass violent crime is rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of stabbings in recent years.

Last August in Yunnan, two people died and seven others were wounded after a man with a history of mental illness attacked people with a knife.

The month before, six people were killed and one wounded in a kindergarten stabbing in southern China's Guangdong province.

And in August 2022, three people were killed and six wounded in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southeast China's Jiangxi province.