A teenager has broken into a daycare centre in southern Brazil and stabbed three children and two staff members to death before being overpowered by police, officials say.

Municipal Education Secretary Gisela Hermann described a “horror scene” at the childcare facility in Saudades, a town in Santa Catarina state.

She told Reuters in a telephone interview that a female teacher and an educational assistant were among the dead.

She added that other children would likely be hospitalised as a result of the attack.

Silvia Fernandes dos Santos, a local school board official, said the attack happened about 10am on Tuesday (local time).

The teenager was taken into police custody after trying to harm himself, she said.

“He tried to … take his own life but he couldn’t. So he was sent to the nearest hospital to be transferred. People were very angry and they wanted to deliver their own justice,” Ms dos Santos told Reuters via telephone.

Police in the city of Chapecó, near Saudades, said they were investigating the incident but could not provide any information immediately.

-AAP