Dozens killed and multiple injured after car hits crowd outside stadium

At least 35 people are dead and 43 more have been injured after a driver deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports centre in southern China.

Police detained a 62-year-old man at the sports centre in the Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday evening, who was stopped and taken to hospital after trying to kill himself following the attack.

No motive for the attack has been revealed yet, and police say their investigations are ongoing.

One of the four hospitals that took in people for treatment said it had more than 20 injured, state media reported Monday.

Police identified the man only by his family name of Fan, which is standard practice among Chinese authorities. A statement by the force said the vehicle knocked down ‘a number of’ of pedestrians.

Videos from the scene showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person as onlookers 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 centre 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 centre 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 centre for the city district of Xiangzhou regularly attracts hundreds of residents, where they can run on the track field, play soccer and social dance. Following the incident, the centre 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.

President Xi Jinping has since ordered local governmentsto do their utmost to save the wounded and ‘severely punish the criminal’

Xi also urged local governments to ‘strengthen the prevention and control of risks and promptly resolve conflicts and disputes’, state news agency Xinhua reported.

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