A driver killed 35 people and severely injured another 43 when he rammed his car into people exercising at a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, police said on Tuesday.
Police had detained a 62-year-old man at the sports centre in Zhuhai after the ramming late on Monday, on the eve of an airshow by the People’s Liberation Army that is hosted annually in the city.
Police identified the man only by his family name of Fan, as is usual with the Chinese authorities. Fan was discovered in the car with a knife, with wounds to his neck thought to be self-inflicted, according to the statement. Police said he was unconscious and receiving medical care. They added that their preliminary investigation suggested he had been dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce.
On Tuesday, Xi Jinping, China’s president, urged local officials to ensure social stability and called for “all-out efforts” to treat the injured, according to state media. It was reported that Xi had dispatched a team from Beijing oversee the handling of the incident.
For almost 24 hours after the crime took place, it was unclear what the death or injury toll was. One of the four hospitals that took in people for treatment said it had more than 20 injured, state media reported on Monday. Calls made to the hospitals in the city by AP reporters went unanswered, or were directed towards other hospitals.
On Tuesday morning, searches for the incident were heavily censored on Chinese social media platforms. A search on Weibo for the sports centre turned up only a few posts, with a couple referring to the fact something had happened, without pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media about the incident from Monday night were taken down.
However, outside China’s Great Firewall, on X, videos were able to circulate. They were shared by the news blogger and dissident Li Ying, who is better known on X as Teacher Li. His account posts daily news based on user submissions. In the videos, dozens of people were lying prone on the running track in the sports centre. In one, a woman says “my foot is broken”, and a firefighter can be seen performing CPR on someone, as people are told to leave the scene. Similar images were posted on Weibo but were censored.
Chinese internet censors take extra care to scrub social media before and during big events, such as the meeting of the National People’s Congress, where the government announces its major policy initiatives for the coming year.
The incident happened on the day before China’s biggest airshow, which opened in Zhuhai on Tuesday. The new aircraft debuted at the show included the PLA Air Force’s J-35A fighter jets, which appeared in public for the first time.
The sports centre, which serves the city district of Xiangzhou, regularly attracts hundreds of people, who run on its track, play football and dance. After the incident, the centre announced it would be closed until further notice.
There have been a number of recent attacks in China in which suspects appeared to target random people, including schoolchildren. In October, a 50-year-old man was detained after he allegedly used a knife to attack children at a school in Beijing. Five people were injured. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket.