A man suspected of murdering 10 people and wanted under a national Class A warrant has been arrested after being at large for over a month.

Farmer Qiu Xinghua is alleged to have killed nine men and one woman on July 15.

He confessed to the crimes after being captured on Saturday evening by Shaanxi police at a house he rented in Foping, Shaanxi Province, said Li Tianle, a spokesman for the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department yesterday.

"Our policemen and local officials made continuous efforts in the past 34 days in this deep mountainous area to search for the suspect," the spokesman said.

Further investigations are ongoing, local police said.

Qiu Xinghua, 47, from Yixincun Village in Shiquan County, was working and living in Daheba Town in Foping County. Both the counties are in mountainous areas in southern Shaanxi.

On the evening of July 15, Qiu is said to have killed 10 people, nine male and one female, aged between 12 and 62. The murders are alleged to have happened in a temple at the top of a mountain near Qiu's hometown. The victims were temple workers and local farmers.

The police do not yet know the motive for the killings.

The Shaanxi Provincial Public Security sent a team led by Wang Rui, director of the department, to the site for an investigation.

After two days, the police believed Qiu was a suspect but discovered he had escaped, Li said.

On July 26, the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department and the Ministry of Public Security issued a class A arrest warrant and offered a reward of 50,000 yuan (US$6,165). On August 5, the reward was increased to 100,000 yuan (US$12,330).

On August 2, one of Qiu's fellow villagers said they saw him hiding in the forest near the village and reported that to local police.

However, local police did not catch the suspect that day so a large-scale hunt began in the area. More than 200 police officers searched the mountains where there are dense forests and deep valleys, the police spokesman said.

The hunt did not stop, despite the intense heat, in the mountains which Qiu knew well, until he was arrested by four policemen who were waiting in his rented house in Foping County.

"We heard a knock at the door when we were hiding in the house at about 8:20pm on Saturday evening and then found the man outside was Qiu. We caught him and found a knife on him," said Xiong Hanbin, one of the four policemen who arrested the suspect.

(China Daily August 21, 2006)