Chinese man slashed a child to death and severely injured two others in Guangxi The man attacked three children as they were walking home from school Police are searching for the man, but the motive for the attack is not clear China has seen a string of high-profile slashing attacks in the past few years Last month, a man fatally stabbed four schoolchildren in Guangxi Also in September, another man stabbed students and teachers, killing three By Khaleda Rahman and Julian Robinson for MailOnline A man slashed an eight-year-old boy to death and severely injured two others today in China's latest random 'slasher' attack. The man slashed the three children with a knife while they were walking home from school for a noon break in Luojia village. A suspect who was released from jail in April attacked the children in the eastern province of Jiangxi and then fled to a nearby mountain, the official Xinhua news agency reported. An eight-year-old boy was slashed to death and two classmates injured in the latest violent attack on China's children. 'They were almost home when it happened,' said Han Li, a propaganda official for Yiyang county in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. He added police were searching for the man, but the motive for the attack was not immediately clear. China has seen many high-profile slashing attacks targeting schools over the past ten years by culprits often identified as being mentally ill or angry at society. In September, a man fatally stabbed four children as they were walking to their elementary school in the southern province of Guangxi. The man was later found having killed himself, media reports said. A spokesman said police are searching for the suspect, whose motive remains unclear Also in September, a 40-year-old man stabbed students and teachers with a fruit knife at an elementary school in the central province of Hubei, killing three children and injuring six other people before jumping to his death. And in May 2010, an attacker hacked seven children and one teacher to death and wounded 20 other people in a rampage at a kindergarten in northwest China. At the time, it was the fifth in a string of savage assaults at the country's schools in the space of just three months. Many of the attacks have been carried out by adults with no connection to the schools, with authorities saying the assailants suffered from mental illness or were lashing out at society because of some personal grievance. These attacks have prompted waves of tightened security but little in the way of lasting policy changes. Some cities including Beijing require ID and registration for the purchase of some kinds of knives. Several communities have temporarily stepped up security in response to the latest murders, including the confiscation of knives at the gates of school compounds and in the surrounding community. Many schoolchildren are also now receiving self-defence training.