At least 35 people have died and 43 are hospitalized in Zhuhai (southern China, 2.4 million inhabitants) after a man rammed his car into a crowd that was exercising, according to reports this Tuesday afternoon the state news agency, Xinhua, citing the police report. The driver, a 62-year-old man named Fan, was arrested on the spot. The injured are out of danger. Although it was known this Tuesday, the event occurred 24 hours earlier.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to “severely punish the guilty in accordance with the law,” Xinhua reports, and has urged “all relevant regions and departments to take precautions and strengthen risk control.” Chinese Premier Li Qian has also asked local governments to investigate “hidden risks and social conflicts.” According to the newspaper South China Morning Postthe perpetrator of the accident “is in a coma and the police cannot interrogate him.”
The incident occurred at 7:48 p.m. on Monday (10:48 a.m. Spanish peninsular time), despite the fact that the city had reinforced security measures to host a military air show. Most of the videos that witnesses posted have been deleted from Chinese social media, so it took almost a full day for the news to come to light. Images still circulating show several people lying on the ground and receiving help from emergency services and other passersby.
According to police authorities, “Fan rammed a van into the crowd at the entrance to the sports center and then tried to escape.” “The officers found Fan attempting to harm himself with a knife inside the vehicle and he was immediately arrested and taken to the hospital for treatment,” they add. According to the preliminary investigation, the man’s motivation was his dissatisfaction with the distribution of assets after his divorce.
Chen, a witness cited by the Chinese magazine Caixinstates that at least six groups of people had gathered at the sports center to take their routine nightly walks, in which they tour the perimeter of the stadium. The group Chen was walking with had completed their third lap when a car came at them at high speed and “knocked over a lot of people.” “He drove in circles and injured people in all areas of the track: north, south, east and west,” he says. Caixin. The magazine reports that among the injured there were many elderly people, but also teenagers and children.
