Police in China have said that 35 people were killed and 43 wounded after a car ploughed into pedestrians yesterday evening in the southern city of Zhuhai.
The ramming was reported yesterday, though at the time police only said that people had been injured, while videos of the incident appeared to have been scrubbed from social media.
But this morning, police said that a “serious and vicious attack” had occurred at Zhuhai Sports Centre, revealing the death toll to be 35.
The 62-year-old driver, surnamed Fan, had driven “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”, police said in a statement.
Videos from last 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 driver had been “triggered by (his) dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce”, the police said in a statement.
After the incident, the driver was “controlled on the spot by the police who rushed to the scene as he attempted to drive away”.
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”, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Graphic videos circulating on social media last night showed the aftermath of the incident, though most had disappeared by today.
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.”
In a safety alert, Japan’s embassy in China warned its citizens 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.