35 killed after car plows into crowds at sports center in Chinese city

HONG KONG — Thirty-five people were killed in southern China after a car plowed into crowds exercising in the grounds of an outdoor sports center on Monday evening, according to police.

More than 40 people were injured and hospitalized after the SUV hit people at the Zhuhai Sports Center in the southern city of Zhuhai at around 8 p.m. Monday, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The man alleged to be the driver, a 62-year-old man identified by his surname name Fan, was unhappy with the outcome of a divorce settlement, the statement said. He was apprehended by police while trying to flee the scene.

“Officers found Fan self-harming with a knife in the vehicle, immediately stopped him and sent him to hospital for treatment. Due to severe neck injuries, Fan is currently unconscious, still undergoing emergency treatment and unable to be interrogated,” police said in the statement.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the incident was allegedly triggered by Fan’s dissatisfaction with the property division outcomes over his divorce, the statement added. Fan has been detained on suspicion of “endangering public safety.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged all-out efforts to treat the injured and called for the perpetrator to be severely punished according to the law, describing the mass hit-and-run as a case with “an extremely malicious nature,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The hit-and-run took place on the eve of China’s biggest civil and military airshow, which runs from November 12 to 17 in Zhuhai.

Online videos of the aftermath, geolocated by CNN, show scores of people lying on jogging tracks and nearby grounds, with shoes scattered around.

Many of the injured were in sports outfits, including the uniforms of at least two local fitness walking groups.

Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that the SUV crashed into multiple fitness walking groups hitting dozens of participants. Many of the injured were middle-aged and elderly, though teenagers and children were also among them, Caixin reported.

“(The vehicle) struck all around, injuring people in various sections of the sports field’s circular track, across the eastern, southern, western, and northern areas,” a witness surnamed Liu told Caixin.

The Zhuhai Sports Center features an outdoor track and field and is frequented by local residents for daily exercise. Following the incident, the center announced it would be closed until further notice.

China, a country of 1.4 billion, generally has low violent crime rates. But it has faced a spate of attacks targeting random members of the public, including school children, in recent months.

In October, police arrested a 50-year-old man after a stabbing attack near an elementary school in Beijing injured five people, including three children.

In September, three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a suburban supermarket in Shanghai.

Also in September, a bus crashed into a crowd of students and parents outside a school in Tai’an city in Shandong province, killing 11 people and injuring 13 others. Chinese authorities did not reveal whether it was accidental or deliberate. — CNN