BEIJING - POLICE in the central Chinese province of Hubei have launched a manhunt after finding eight dead bodies, state media said on Tuesday.

The authorities first found two bodies - those of a woman and a young child - in a house in a village near Suizhou city, and identified the suspect as a waste collector, Xinhua news agency said.

They found six other bodies at his workshop, all of people who had previously worked with him, it added.

Police discovered axes and hammers suspected of being used in the murders, the report said.

While it is not clear why the six workers were killed, Xinhua said the dead woman had previously turned down a marriage proposal by the suspect.

More than 100 police were now involved in a manhunt, the report said.

Separately, the China Daily said that police in the southern city of Guangzhou had found the dismembered body of a four-year-old girl, who may have been murdered for her flesh, stuffed inside a fridge.

Police had arrested a man, a neighbour of the girl's family, on suspicion of murder, the newspaper said. -- REUTERS