Driver ploughs into Chinese sports centre, killing 35

A driver has killed 35 people and wounded 43 others in southern China, police said Tuesday, a day after the car ploughed down people exercising in a sports centre in the city of Zhuhai.

After the attack was reported on Monday, police only said people had been wounded, while videos of the incident appeared to have been scrubbed from social media.

But on Tuesday, police said that a “serious and vicious attack” had occurred at Zhuhai Sports Centre, revealing the death toll to be 35.

The 43 people wounded are not currently in life-threatening conditions.

Driver ‘triggered’ after divorce

Videos from Monday night geolocated by AFP showed people lying motionless on the ground, while others were seen frantically attempting to resuscitate the unconscious.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the 62-year-old driver, surnamed Fan, had been “triggered by (his) dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce”, the police said in a statement.

Fan drove “a small SUV through the gate and forced his way into the city’s sports centre, ramming people who were exercising on the internal roads of the sports centre”, the statement added.

He was “controlled on the spot by the police who rushed to the scene as he attempted to drive away”.

The police found Fan in his car cutting himself with a knife, before they stopped him and sent him to hospital.

He is currently in a coma after self-inflicted injuries to his neck and other parts of his body and unable to undergo interrogation, police added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged “all-out efforts” to treat the people injured and has “demanded punishing the perpetrator in accordance with the law”, state news agency Xinhua said.

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Victims lying motionless

Graphic videos circulating on social media on Monday night showed the aftermath of the incident, though most had disappeared by Tuesday.

China’s largest airshow showcasing Beijing’s civil and military aerospace sector is being held in the same city at the moment.

On Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, users expressed their shock at the death toll.

“Last night after work, when I watched the news, there weren’t this many people reported,” one user commented on a photo of the police statement released. “Tonight, suddenly seeing this number — so many families affected.”

Videos on the social media platform also showed Zhuhai residents queuing up at blood donation centres and hospitals.

In a safety alert, Japan’s embassy in China warned its citizens on Tuesday to be on high alert and “refrain from speaking loudly in Japanese and avoid provocative, attention-drawing behaviour such as being loud in groups”.

The embassy said it had no information that any Japanese citizens had been wounded in the attack.

China has seen a spate of violent public attacks in recent months.

A man killed three people and wounded 15 in a knife attack at a supermarket in the Chinese megacity of Shanghai in October.

In September, a Japanese schoolboy was stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen and died of his injuries, prompting outrage from Tokyo.

And in July, police said a vehicle crashed into pedestrians in the central city of Changsha, killing eight.

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