The suspected attacker, a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin, was arrested at the supermarket shortly after the incident on Monday night, local police said in a statement.

Police said the man went on the rampage in anger caused by a “personal financial dispute”.

Eighteen wounded people were taken to hospital for treatment, where three died, they added.

The other 15 did not sustain life-threatening wounds.

Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, with a number of similar attacks at schools in recent years.

A Japanese schoolboy in September was stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen and died of his injuries, prompting outrage from Tokyo.

In May, a man killed eight people and wounded one more with a knife in the city of Xiaogan in central Hubei province.