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 city of Zhuhai.
The 62-year-old driver was detained, police said earlier Monday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether it was an attack or an accident. No motive was mentioned, and police said investigations continued.
The incident occurred on the eve of the country’s premier aviation exhibition by the People’s Liberation Army, hosted annually in the city.
Authorities were slow to release information due to the Zhuhai Airshow.
Police identified the man who was detained only by his family name of Fan, consistent with the practice by Chinese authorities.
Videos showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person, as people were told to leave the scene. 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 says “my foot is broken.”
By Tuesday morning, searches for the incident on Chinese social media were heavily censored on Chinese social media platforms. A search on Weibo for the sports center only turned up a few posts, with only 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.
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, where they can 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 such as 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.
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