BEIJING: Police in central China encircled Sunday a remote hilltop where a gunman suspected of killing 12 people, including his father, was believed to be hiding, state media said.

Special police and paramilitary troops have cornered suspect Liu Aibing, 34, on the hilltop in Hunan province and are closing in on him, the Hunan government news website Hongwang reported.

Liu is suspected of shooting 12 people dead with a hunting rifle and seriously wounding two others on Saturday in Yinshanpai village, the report said.

Six wooden homes were also torched in the rampage, it said.

Earlier, Xinhua news agency said 11 people were killed and five homes were destroyed by fire.

The killings occurred early Saturday evening, Xinhua said.

Liu, a migrant worker, had recently returned from southern China's Guangdong province where he had sought employment, the Hongwang report said. He has a history of mental illness, it added.

Among the dead were Liu's father and several close relatives, it said.

The Hunan killings are the latest family-related murders in China in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, police in southwest China captured a man suspected of murdering his parents and four other relatives after he escaped from a mental hospital in Yunnan province.

In late November, police in the southern Hainan province captured a man suspected of hacking to death his parents, wife, sons and sister in Beijing.