AN ex-convict dumped by his girlfriend has been arrested and linked to the stabbing murders of 65 people in several provinces, in what could be the worst case of individual mass murder in China's recent history.

The picture shows a Chinese media coverage on the 18 teenage boys who were killed by the mass killer. [AP Photo]

Yang Zhiya, who also goes by the aliases Yang Liu and Yang Xinhai, was apprehended Nov. 3 in the northern Chinese province of Hebei, the Beijing News said.

It said Yang, 35, who had served time in prison in the past for unspecified crimes, had been accused of killing people in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Hebei because he "desperately wanted to retaliate against society,'' the newspaper said.

The Beijing Youth Daily said Yang had killed 65 people, severely injured five, and raped 23 women since 2001.

Details of the victims' identities or the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately available.

Yang began the murders after his girlfriend broke up with him, the Beijing News said, quoting police. It said he went from city to city on a killing spree, sometimes traveling between towns by bicycle.

He was detained after acting suspiciously at a recreation center in Cangzhou, a city in Hebei. Police took him in for questioning and found that he was on the wanted list, the Beijing News said.

It said Cangzhou police had been congratulated by the Ministry of Public Security for apprehending Yang.

Yang had been a clever child, but quite introverted, said the Beijing News, quoting Yang's father, who lives in a village in Zhengyang County, Henan Province.

Yang ran away from school at the age of about 17, said the father, who had seen him only twice since.

"He refused to go home with me," he said.

Yang's parents are among the poorest in the village of 2000 households. They lived in a dilapidated house and could afford little but maintained a good relationship with their neighbors.