Four people, including two children, were killed in an apartment in Changsha in Central China's Hunan province on Saturday morning, said local police.

They were stabbed to death between 9 a.m. and 10 am at the Yunding Cuifeng residential community on the west side of the city. The killer set fire to the apartment, which was soon put out.

Police didn't give detailed information about the victims.

A resident of the community who declined to be named told Xinhua that the two children were both boys. One of them was a second-grader, while the other was a pre-schooler.

The case is under police investigation.