BEIJING (AFP) -- More than 200 policemen are searching a forest in China for a man who allegedly killed 10 people in a Taoist temple, local media said Wednesday.

The bodies of Qiu Xinghua's victims were found in the temple in Hanyin county in the northern province of Shaanxi on July 16, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

Qiu allegedly carried out the attacks out of revenge after having disputes with managers at the temple which he regularly visited, the Shaanxi-based Huashang Daily said on its website.

All of the victims were hacked in the head while they were sleeping at the temple and some of them were disemboweled, the paper said, without identifying who they were.

Police have not been able to capture Qiu after five days of searching for him in the nearby forested mountains, despite seeing traces of his presence.

Authorities have brought Qiu's wife and children to the mountains where they used a bullhorn to try and convince him to turn himself in.