A police officer says the attack in the Henan province village of Chengping happened shortly before 8 a.m. Friday as students were arriving for classes.
The officer says the attacker, 36-year-old local villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody. The officer declined to give her name, as is customary among Chinese civil servants.
A county hospital administrator says the man first attacked an elderly woman, then students, before being subdued by security guards who have been posted across China following a spate of school attacks in recent years. He says two students have been transferred to better-equipped hospitals outside the county.