KIEV (AFP) - A man armed with a knife killed two people and injured another eight, including an eight-year-old boy, in central Ukraine on Saturday (Nov 7), police said, in an incident that the country's president described as barbaric.

National police said in a statement that the attack happened in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rig.

The attacker was detained and identified as a 37-year-old local resident, police said.

No further details were released and no indication of a possible motive.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is a native of the city, described the attack as "a manifestation of absolute terrorism...it was terrorism, a barbaric way to intimidate people".

In May, seven people were shot and killed during an alcohol-fuelled fishing trip in central Ukraine, a rare mass shooting in the ex-Soviet country.