35 people killed as driver hits crowd at sports center

HONG KONG — Thirty-five people were killed and another 43 were injured when a driver deliberately rammed his car into a crowd outside a sports center in southern China, police said 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.”

Police identified the man by his last name, Fan. He was in a coma after harming himself with a knife in his car, police said, adding that he was still being treated and couldn’t be questioned.

Police said that Fan was dissatisfied with the division of property after his divorce, according to an initial investigation.

Fan is now under criminal detention. The 43 people injured in the incident are now in non life-threatening situation, police said.

Videos geolocated by NBC News show people lying on the ground covered in blood near the sports center, and some people wailing.

In a relatively rare move, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for Fan to be “severely punished in accordance with the law,” state media Xinhua News reported.

A central government working group has been dispatched to the site to guide and oversee the response efforts, according to Xinhua.

The incident occurred on the eve of the Zhuhai airshow, the country’s largest aerospace trade expo where China debuted the J-35A jet, its latest model of stealth fighter jet.

News of the death toll sent shockwaves through Chinese social media, although the topic only ranked 11th on Weibo, China’s X-like platform, which is subject to strict internet censorship.

“I’m utterly speechless aside from being shocked. I need a moment of silence to calm myself down,” one person wrote on Weibo.

China has seen a number of recent attacks against civilians, including children and foreigners.

In September, a bus crushed into a group of students and parents outside a school in the eastern province of Shandong, killing at least 11 people.

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.