A Chinese man who carried out a knife attack in eastern China last June that wounded a Japanese woman and her child and killed a bus attendant trying to protect them has been sentenced to death, according to a Japanese official.

A Chinese court has sentenced a man to death over the fatal stabbing of a Japanese boy in the southern city of Shenzhen, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Friday, citing Japanese ambassador to China,

A Chinese court said that Zhou Jiasheng, 52, had carried out the attack on 24 June after he lost the will to live, following the loss of his job and subsequent debts. The attack had taken place outside a Japanese school in the Chinese province of Suzhou - and was one of three attacks on foreigners in China last year.