Dozens killed in Zhuhai, China, by driver who rammed car into crowd ahead of army air show, police say

Bangkok — Police in China say 35 people were killed and another 43 injured when a driver rammed his car into people exercising at a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. The 62-year-old driver was detained, police said Monday.

Later on Tuesday, police said the man was unhappy about a divorce settlement.

The Monday night incident came on the eve of the country’s premier aviation exhibition by the People’s Liberation Army, hosted annually in Zhuhai. 

There has been heavy censorship of information about the incident given the timing and location, with officials only announcing the death toll the following day. 

One of the four hospitals that took in people for treatment said it had more than 20 injured people, state media reported Monday.
 
Police identified the man only by his family name of Fan, consistent with the practice by Chinese authorities. The police statement said the vehicle knocked down “a number of” of pedestrians Monday evening.

President Xi Jinping called in a statement on Tuesday for the driver to punished in accordance with Chinese law.

A man at the emergency clinic of Shang Chong Hospital in Zhuhai said they had received some slightly injured people and most of them left after treatment. Zhuhai People’s Hospital said it had received injured, but it did not offer a number of casualties. Calls to the Xiangzhou District People’s Hospital and the Third People’s Hospital of Zhuhai went unanswered.

Videos showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person as people were told to leave the scene Monday night. They were shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, who is better known on X as Teacher Li. His account posts daily news based on user submissions. Dozens of people were lying prone on the running track in the sports center in the videos. In one, a woman can be heard saying her “foot is broken.”

By Tuesday morning, searches for information about the incident on Chinese social media platforms were being heavily censored. A search on Weibo, similar to X, for the sports center only turned up a few posts, with only a couple referring to the fact that something had happened there, and no pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media outlets about the incident from Monday night had been taken down.

Chinese internet censors take extra care to scrub social media ahead of and during major events, such as the meeting of the National People’s Congress, where the government announces its major policy initiatives for the coming year.

The sports center for the city district of Xiangzhou regularly attracts hundreds of residents to run on the track field, play soccer and dance. Following the incident, the center announced it would be closed until further notice.

China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear 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.