Yi Hsia, 40, had apparently never forgotten an insult made by his neighbour and after drinking and playing cards with friends, had grabbed the metal hammer and waited outside the man's house in Jingxi township in Minhou county in south-eastern China's Fujian province.
When he spotted Yul Xu's daughter Xiao walking home with friends, he had walked up to her and hit her over the head.
Eyewitness Meng Liao said: 'It was sickening, he was hitting the lifeless body repeatedly on the head with a hammer.
'Loads of other people ran over including me and he ran off but by then it was too late for the girl.
She was already dead by the time paramedics arrived. '
The nine-year-old's mother rushed to the scene but could only cradle her daughter's body in her arms and her father told police he was stunned that the other man waited 20 years to get revenge.
Dad Yul, 43, said: 'I haven't had a cross word with him for 20 years, I barely remember the incident but it was certainly a stupid argument over nothing. I can't imagine why he held a grudge for so long.'
He added that he had seen the man walking around his house recently but had not thought anything of it.
He said: 'I certainly didn't expect anything bad and definitely nothing like this. I can't believe my daughter, who was the light of our family's life and had a bright future ahead of her, has gone like that.
'I keep expecting her to walk down the street from school.'
Other children who fled in terror after the hammer attack were given counselling over the incident.
The family of the killer who was found hiding in an attic at his parents' home by police claimed he suffered mental problems lately.
However people who been playing card with him 30 minutes before the killing said that he showed no signs of mental problems, and had only been drinking.
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