A man in China has rammed his car into a crowd of people at a sports complex, killing 35 people and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.
The 62-year-old man was disgruntled over his divorce settlement, according to authorities, who have detained him. Police have said the 43 people injured in the incident are now in non life-threatening situations.
Following the attack in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, the man is also being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted. Police identified the man by his family name of Fan, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.
The attack is believed the be the deadliest act of public violence in decades.
Police said Fan was dissatisfied with the division of financial assets after his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation.
Chinese authorities appear to be tightly controlling information about the incident. For almost 24 hours after the attack, the death and injury toll was unclear, as searches for what happened were being heavily censored.
The city was hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s annual aviation exhibition, and it’s known that during such large-scale events internet censors tend to scrub social media.
Outside of the controls, videos circulated on the social media platform X, where dozens of people could be seen lying on the track at the sports complex, which is regularly used by hundreds of residents to run, play soccer or dance.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law. He also called on the government to take actions to oversee the response efforts and prevent future incidents from occurring, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
While police set up barricades at the sports complex on Tuesday, members of the public have left bouquets in the surrounding area in honour of the attack victims.
This attack is the latest in a series that China has had in recent times, where suspects appear to target members of the public at random.
In October, a man allegedly attacked children with a knife at a school in Beijing. In September, three people and 15 others were injured by a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, after police said the suspect had personal financial disputes. And in May, two people and 21 others were injured by a knife attack in a hospital in Yunnan province.