XI'AN -- A 47-year-old man from Shiquan City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is to stand trial on charges of murdering ten people in a Taoist temple.

However, a date for the prosecution of Qiu Xinghua was yet to be announced, said a spokesman for the Procuratorate of Hanyin County, Shaanxi Province.

Qiu is alleged to have killed ten people, including the abbot, five staff and four worshippers, at Tiewadian Temple, in Pingliang Township of Hanyin County, on July 16.

Qiu was alleged to have quarreled with temple staff when he went to worship several days before the killings. He was arrested in his ancestral home in Foping County on August 19.