BEIJING — Chinese police have arrested a man after 16 people were found dead in six village homes on Thursday, state media reported.

The bodies of the men, women and three children were found in Huize county in Yunnan province in the country’s southwest.

The official Xinhua News Agency said a suspect was arrested in the provincial capital of Kunming, about 120 miles from where the bodies were found.

An officer at the Daibu branch of the Huize police confirmed the deaths, but said he had no further details.

Xinhua did not identify the suspect. It described the deaths as a killing spree but provided no details. If they were murders, the deaths would be one of the bloodiest mass slayings in China in recent years.

Because firearms are tightly controlled in China, mass attacks are usually carried out with knives, poison or homemade explosives.