NANNING - A man who killed three children and injured another 13 in south China on Friday has told police investigators that he was frustrated before the attack and had attempted suicide.

Wu Yechang used a wood chopper to attack 16 children at a care center on Friday afternoon in Pingnan county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Three of his victims died after treatment failed.

Wu attempted suicide on Friday as a result of frustrations in both his life and work, but he changed his mind as he thought it was a "meaningless" way of death and decided to do something "big, " according to police interrogation.

He then bought a chopper and roamed the streets. When he saw the care center, he broke in and began to slash anyone he saw, Wu told police.

Wu had been jobless since he returned home to Pingnan from Guangdong province, a manufacturing hub and major destination for the country's migrant workers.

Police said Wu did not have a record of mental illness, but they have to depend on experts' diagnosis to decide if he suffers mental disorder.

A manager of the care center has also been detained for accountability in the serious incident.

Most of the injured children are in stable condition although one is still in intensive care for excessive loss of blood, according to doctors.

The father of a child who suffered a head wound in the attack said he was shocked at the news that his six year old had been injured. ?"My child entered school only 20 days ago. I never imagined such a terrible thing would happen to us," the man surnamed Luo said at the hospital.

The Ministry of Health and the autonomous regional government have dispatched experts to the county to help with medical and psychological treatment.

The county authorities have ordered intensified security measures at and around schools and kindergartens.