Driver ‘angered by divorce settlement’ rams car into crowd in China, killing 35

Mourners burn incense near the floral tributes outside a sports centre
Mourners burn incense near the floral tributes outside a sports centre - Ng Han Guan/AP

AlBawabaEnglish/Posted_news/Broheisbrian/X

A man upset about his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd in China, killing at least 35 people and injuring 43, police said.

The 62-year-old was detained after the attack, which happened outside a sports centre in the city of Zhuhai, in south China, on Monday night.

Footage of the aftermath showed dozens of people lying motionless on running tracks and fields, with shoes and items of clothing scattered across the grounds.

Many of the injured appeared to be wearing sports outfits. Most were middle-aged, although teenagers and children were also among the casualties, Caixin, a Chinese media outlet reported.

Cries of “terrorist” could be heard as ambulances arrived at the scene.

Emergency vehicles at the scene of the attack
Emergency vehicles at the scene of the attack - UGC/AFP via Getty Images

“[The car] 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 said.

Police identified the arrested man only by his family name of Fan. They said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounds that were believed to be self-inflicted.

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

The 43 people injured in the attack are not in a life-threatening condition, they said.

Security guards at the scene of the devastating ram-raid attack at the Zhuhai sports centre
Security guards at the scene of the devastating ram-raid attack at the Zhuhai sports centre - Kyodo News

In the first reports of the attack, the authorities said only that people had been wounded.

Zhuhai is hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s annual air force show, which opened on Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall.

But on Tuesday, as tributes to the victims were left outside the stadium, it was disclosed that a “serious and vicious attack” had occurred.

A woman looks at flowers laid in tribute to the dead and injured
A woman looks at flowers laid in tribute to the dead and injured - Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has urged “all-out efforts” to treat the injured and has “demanded punishing the perpetrator in accordance with the law”, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Violent crime is rare in China because of tight security and strict gun laws. However, a rise in reports of knife attacks in large cities has drawn public attention to safety in public spaces.

In October, a knife attack in Beijing left five people wounded outside one of the city’s top primary schools. A month earlier, a Japanese student was fatally stabbed outside his school in Shenzhen.