A man has been detained on suspicion of murder after a female Guangdong University of Foreign Studies student was killed on campus on Tuesday night.

Police are still searching for a motive, but as a probe is under way, no further details can be revealed, an officer from Guangzhou’s Baiyun district sub-bureau of public security said on Wednesday.

According to a statement released by the university, the 20-year-old victim, surnamed Dai, was a sophomore at the university's college of continuing education.

She was exercising outside when she was attacked by the suspect, the statement said.

An unnamed student told local media that Dai, from East China's Zhejiang province, had been found lying in a pool of her own blood after being stabbed at about 9:30 pm.

Her attacker was overweight, wore a jacket and glasses, and "ran away immediately afterward", the student was quoted as saying.

Dai was already dead by the time an ambulance arrived at about 10:20 pm, according to local media reports.

The school has promised to improve its campus security measures and management in light of the attack and cooperate with the police investigation.