A murder hunt has been launched after seven villagers in Guizhou Province in southwest China were killed Sunday evening.

No details of the manner of the deaths have been revealed, but Qianxi County Communist Party chief Wu Anyu said Tuesday that the seven were all murdered in Jiekui village.

The murdered were identified as Luo Chaojiang and his wife, and the family of five of another villager, Zhou Caixue. All of Zhou's three children were murdered, said the police.

The mission control center of the Security Department of Qianxi County said they were alerted to the seven villagers' murder at 1:35 p.m. Monday by Zeng Bo, chief of the police substation in Huaxi Yi and Miao Township.

Qianxi, a mountainous county to the northwest of Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou, is one of the poorest areas in China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)