CHANGSHA, Aug. 1 -- Six members of a rural family in central China's Hunan Province were murdered on Friday, according to the Public Security Bureau of Zhuzhou City.

Cheng and his family were killed in their home in Jiutang Village, and police are hunting Cheng's son-in-law.

A disturbing number of family murders have taken place in recent years, triggered by neighborhood and domestic disputes, and other trivialities.

On June 2, a villager in Huichang County of Jiangxi Province killed his neighbors -- a couple and their three grandchildren -- because bamboo they planted had shaded his cornfield.