BEIJING - CHINESE police have arrested a junkyard owner suspected of killing eight people on a murderous one-night spree after he was spurned by a widowed grandmother who was one of the victims, state media reported.

The woman's two year-old grandson, who lived with her, was also killed in the late night attack at her apartment, the China Daily said. At the junkyard, police found the bodies of six workers and blood-stained hammers and axes.

The 35-year-old suspect fled to an island in south China after the attack on Jan 4 but returned to the central province of Hubei several days later and was seized after someone recognised him and called the police, the China Daily reported.

Police have not commented on the suspect's motives, but the paper said he had divorced his wife three months earlier hoping to marry the 43-year-old grandmother, who was killed by blows to the head.

The woman turned him down however and when he tried to return to his wife, she also rejected him, it added, quoting the public security chief of the city where he lived.

There was no explanation for why the suspect turned on his employees, three men and three women. -- REUTERS