At least 35 people have been killed and 43 injured after a car drove into crowds of people exercising outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. Police said a 62-year-old man drove an SUV through a barrier outside the stadium and rammed the car into groups of people as he continued driving along its perimeter.
The incident came amid heightened security in the city for an annual air show displaying China’s most advanced fighter aircraft as well as civilian planes. But there was no immediate evidence of a link between the show and the actions of the driver, who has been identified only by his surname Fan.
Police arrested Fan as he attempted to flee the scene but they have been unable to question him after he went into a coma following what they described as self-inflicted wounds. Preliminary inquiries suggested that Fan had been unhappy with the outcome of a property dispute following a recent divorce.
“Fan drove a small off-road vehicle through the gate and forced his way into the city sports centre, ramming into citizens who were exercising on the internal roads of the sports centre. When he drove away, he was controlled on the spot by the public security police who rushed to the scene. The police found that Fan was holding a knife in the car and injured himself, so they immediately stopped him and sent him to the hospital for treatment,” the police said in a statement.
“After comprehensive on-site investigation, video surveillance, witness testimony and electronic evidence, the public security organs initially found that the case was caused by Fan’s dissatisfaction with the result of the division of property after his divorce. At present, the public security organs have filed a case against Fan for suspected crimes of endangering public security by dangerous means and have detained Fan.”
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for all-out efforts to treat the injured and said the perpetrator should be punished in accordance with the law. And he told local governments to step up efforts to reduce risks and protect the public and to “strictly prevent extreme cases”.
The incident in Zhuhai follows a series of violent attacks in China in recent months which have shocked a society where the incidence of violent crime is very low. Three people died and 15 were injured in September when a 37-year-old man went on a stabbing rampage at a Walmart supermarket in a shopping mall in Shanghai.
Less than two weeks before that, a 10-year-old Japanese boy was stabbed to death near his school in Shenzhen. A 44-year-old Chinese man was arrested on the spot.
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