A man has stabbed and injured 18 primary school pupils and a teacher in southern China.

The attack on Wednesday in Leizhou, in Guangdong province near Hong Kong, came on the same day that another man was executed for stabbing to death eight children last month, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The man, in his forties, entered the Leicheng First Primary School in the afternoon and carried out the attacks before being apprehended by police.

Authorities said that none of the victims, all of whom were taken to local hospitals, were at risk of dying due to the attack.

No additional details were given about the attacker.

Parents rushed to the school after the attack, and the building and grounds were subsequently cleared.

Zheng Minsheng, a former doctor, was executed on Wednesday for a March 23 attack in which he killed eight children in the city of Nanping, in Fuijan, a province adjoining Guangdong.

Zheng apparently carried out the murders while he was depressed after being jilted by a girlfriend.

Many couples in China have only one child due to a law to regulate population growth.