BEIJING, June 6 (AFP) - A man armed with a knife killed five people and wounded 15 others in a city in eastern China, the state media reported.

The attack occurred on Saturday afternoon (June 5) in the streets of Anqing, Anhui province, 430km west of Shanghai, state television CCTV said.

The suspect was arrested and an investigation was under way to determine the circumstances of the attack that unfolded in a pedestrian and shopping street, Anqing Public Security Bureau said in a statement released on the Weibo social network.

Knife attacks are not uncommon in China, which heavily restricts access to firearms.

In April, a man with a knife killed two children and injured 16 others at a nursery school in southern China.

In 2018, a man who stabbed nine children to death and wounded another 11 in northern China was sentenced to death.

Violent crime has risen in China in recent decades as the country's economic boom created a bigger gap between the rich and poor.

Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders.