A husband has been arrested after allegedly killing his pregnant wife and six of her relatives in China.

Ma Yongdong, 24, was detained by police of Friday evening in China’s Ningxia region, according to reports – five days after supposedly murdering relatives including his parents and grandparents-in-law, and two nieces aged four and 18 months.

Police had been offering a reward equivalent to £10,145 for anyone who helped arrest Yongdong, who is said to have argued with his wife on Monday.

She was six months pregnant.

Sky News reports he is then alleged to have gone to his wife’s parents’ house in Pengyang county, where the killings were carried out.

State media in China showed pictures of the victims’ bodies apparently laid out outside the crime scene after Yongdong went on the run.