An enraged tour guide has been charged with stabbing 20 people in a tourist town in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Sunday, injuring two of them seriously, police confirmed on Monday.

Xu Mingchao, 25, was arrested at approximately 4:30 PM in the ancient city of Lijiang. He has been accused by the police of stabbing 15 tourists and five locals.

Two boys were seriously injured, including a seven-year-old local and a 15-year-old tourist from eastern Anhui Province.

The older boy, who suffered brain injuries, remains in critical condition, sources with the People's Hospital in Lijiang said on Monday.

They said the seven-year-old is in stable condition after doctors stitched up the wound to an artery on his neck.

Police said Xu, a native from Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, was accompanying a 40-member tour group from the northeastern Jilin Province to Lijiang when he got into an argument with a local guide surnamed Peng on Sunday afternoon.

After Peng left, Xu suddenly lost control and pulled a knife from a saleswoman at a roadside souvenir shop. He then chased several people in the street stabbing and slashing them.

The Lijiang government said they have sent for the best doctors from the provincial capital Kunming to treat the injured people.

Police are investigating whether Xu has a history of mental illness.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2007)