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A driver rams his car into a crowd in China, killing 35 people. Police say he was upset about his divorce
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A driver rams his car into a crowd in China, killing 35 people. Police say he was upset about his divorce

A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement plowed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people and seriously injuring dozens more, said police on Tuesday.

Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for injuries believed to have been self-inflicted, shortly after the attack on Monday night in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. The city hosts the People’s Liberation Army’s annual aviation exhibition, which opened on Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall.

Outside the controls, however, videos circulated on the social network

In one, shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, a woman says “my foot is broken.” That same video showed a firefighter performing CPR on one person, while others were told to leave. Li, known on X as Teacher Li, posts daily news stories based on user submissions.

In addition to the 35 people killed, police said 43 were injured.

China has seen a series of attacks in which suspects appear to target members of the public at random.

In October, a man was detained after he allegedly attacked children with a knife at a Beijing school. Five people were injured. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack at a Shanghai supermarket and 15 others were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”

In May, two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack at a hospital in Yunnan province.

Police identified the man arrested in Monday’s attack only by his last name, Fan, as usual, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical attention after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.

According to a preliminary investigation, he was dissatisfied with the division of financial assets in his divorce, police said.

Chinese authorities appeared to be tightly controlling information about the incident. Internet censors tend to take special care to clean up social media before and during important events, such as the aviation exhibition or the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.

For nearly 24 hours after the attack, it was unclear what the number of dead or wounded was. On Tuesday morning, a search for the sports center on the Chinese social media platform Weibo turned up only a few posts, and only a couple referred to the fact that something had happened, with no photographs or details. Chinese media articles on Monday night about the incident were deleted.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called in a statement late Tuesday for “strict” punishment for the perpetrator according to the law.

He also called on all local governments “to strengthen the prevention and control of risks at their source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.