Thirty-five persons have been confirmed dead, while another 43 were said to have been injured after a driver deliberately rammed his car into a crowd outside a sports centre in southern China. The Incident was confirmed by the police on Tuesday.
A 62-year-old man was detained at the scene after he drove his small off-road vehicle into people exercising at Zhuhai Sports Center late Monday, the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau said in a statement, calling the incident serious and vicious.
An internal investigation, according to the police, revealed that he was not satisfied with the division of his property after his divorce.
The police confirmed that he has been subjected to criminal detention. The police also noted that the person injured in the incident had been removed from a life-threatening condition; it was confirmed that 43 persons were injured from the incident.
A geolocated video by NBC showed different individuals who were lying on the ground covered with blood close to the sports centre while some others were seen shouting.
The state media Xinhua News has reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the severe punishment of Fan according to the law, a move that has been seen to be relatively strange.
It was confirmed that a central government working group had been dispatched to the site to guide and oversee the response efforts, according to Xinhua.
The ugly incident happened a day before the celebration of the Zhuhai Airshow, the country’s largest aerospace trade expo. At this event, China debuted the J-35A jet, its latest stealth fighter jet model.
The news of the incident shocked the citizens of China, and different reactions were posted on social media. The apology was ranked 11th on Weibo, China’s X-like platform, which is subject to stringent internet censorship.
One of the citizens who reacted on Weibo noted that the incident was shocking and left people speechless. The resident noted that a moment of silence was needed to bring calm.
There have been several attacks in China in recent times, with the majority of them happening against civilians, including children and foreigners.
In September, a bus crashed into a group of students and parents outside a school in the eastern province of Shandong, killing at least 11 people.
In another incident the same month, a 10-year-old Japanese boy was killed after he was stabbed on his way to a Japanese school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. In October, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, three people were killed and 15 others were injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai.
